October 3, 2019

HCI: Support after school programs

Thursday

October 3, 2019 T: 582-7800 | F: 582-7044 www.arubatoday.com

Page 13

Aruba’s ONLY English newspaper

U.K. is offering Brexit ‘compromise’ to EU

By JILL LAWLESS, DANICA KIRKA and RAF CASERT MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The U.K. offered the European Union a proposed last-minute Brexit deal on Wednesday that it said represents a realistic compromise for both sides, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the bloc to hold “rapid negotiations towards a solution” after years of wrangling.

With Britain due to leave the bloc at the end of this month, Johnson said in a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that not reaching a deal would be “a failure of statecraft for which we would all be responsible.”

He did not mention that the EU and the U.K. did reach a deal in 2018 _ only for it to be rejected, three times, by Britain’s Parliament.

The EU gave the proposals a guarded welcome and

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers his Leader's speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, England, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. Britain's ruling Conservative Party is holding their annual party conference.

Associated Press

said the two sides would negotiate over the coming days. Juncker said he welcomed Johnson's "determi-

nation" to make progress but noted there were still some "problematic" areas.

Finland, which currently

holds the EU presidency, said the 27 other member states would “engage actively” with the U.K. propos-

als, and chief negotiator Michel Barnier said they represented “progress.”

Continued on Page 8

A2 UP

FRONT U.S. judge: Injection sites don’t violate federal drug laws Thursday 3 October 2019

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that supervised injection sites designed to prevent overdoses do not violate federal drug laws, giving advocates in Philadelphia and perhaps elsewhere a boost in their efforts to open them.

U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh said there’s no evidence that Congress intended 1980s-era drug laws to cover sites where people could inject drugs and have medical help nearby if they need it.

“Safe injection sites were not considered by Congress and could not have been, because their use as a possible harm reduction strategy among opioid users had not yet entered public discourse,” McHugh said in his ruling.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, had gone to court in Philadelphia to try to block the plan, calling the goal “laudable” but supporters misguided.

Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner and

In this June 21, 2019 file photo, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania William McSwain speaks with members of the media at a news conference at the U.S. Custom House in Philadelphia.

Associated Press

former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, all Democrats, believe the program would reduce the city's 1,100 annual overdose deaths and help steer users into treatment.

Rendell helped found the nonprofit group that would run the program, called Safehouse, after the overdose death of a family friend.

Ronda Goldfein, a Safehouse vice president, said the group would seek clarity from McHugh in the next few weeks on whether to

move forward with plans to open sites across the city.

The Justice Department appeared likely to challenge the decision. Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said the department was disappointed and would “take all available steps to pursue further judicial review.”

“Any attempt to open illicit drug injection sites in other jurisdictions while this case is pending will continue to be met with immediate action by the department,” he said in a statement.

The issue has divided public officials in Philadelphia and around the nation, although similar sites are in use in Canada and Europe.

Supervised injection sites are also being considered in other U.S. cities including Seattle, New York, San Francisco and Somerville, Massachusetts.

Under the Safehouse plan, people struggling with addiction could bring drugs to the clinic-like setting, use them in a partitioned bay and get help from nearby medical help if they overdose. They would also be counseled about treatment and other health services.

“It’s a better option than having people die in streets and alleyways and fields.

And it will also help the community,” said Debbie Howland of Drexel Hill, who lost a daughter to an overdose death last year.

She volunteers several days a week in Philadelphia’s drug-ravaged Kensington neighborhood, and bemoaned that small children have to walk past dirty needles and “devastated” us-

ers on their way to school.

“With 70,000 people dying a year (nationally), you’ve got to do something,” she said Wednesday.

However, some neighborhood groups and city council members representing the area oppose the plan and have vowed to keep fighting it.

Safehouse lawyers had argued that it wasn’t clearly illegal under the Controlled Substances Act — which regulates the possession, use and distribution of certain drugs — to stand nearby with life-saving medical help.

McHugh in his ruling agreed.

“The ultimate goal of Safehouse’s proposed operation is to reduce drug use, not facilitate it, and accordingly, (the law) does not prohibit Safehouse’s proposed conduct,” he wrote. The decision come as federal, state and local authorities pursue billions of dollars in legal damages from pharmaceutical companies that manufactured and marketed opioid products.q

U.S. NEWS A3

Thursday 3 October 2019

Lawsuits: Nation’s biggest railway companies fixed prices

By REBECCA BOONE BOISE, Idaho (AP) — More than two dozen major companies ranging from Campbell’s Soup to Kia sued the nation’s four biggest railway companies, contending they had a price-fixing scheme to illegally boost profits.

In the lawsuits filed Monday around the U.S., the companies said BNSF Railway Co., CSX Transportation Inc., Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad Co. conspired to boost prices starting in 2003 by imposing coordinated fuel surcharges, ultimately pocketing billions of dollars in profits.

The price-fixing allegations have been making their way through U.S. courts for years, with several companies filing similar lawsuits in 2007.

Attorneys then sought classaction status on behalf of 16,000 shippers against the four railroads, but earlier this year a U.S. appellate judge said the cases would have to be brought individually or broken down into groups of similar shippers with similar situations. The deadline for filing those individual cases was Monday.

An attorney for Union Pacific Railroad declined to comment and attorneys for the other three railways did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In previous stages of the lawsuits, the railroads have generally contended that fuel surcharges are common across the transporta-

tion industry, that they were legal and simply intended to recover the skyrocketing cost of fuel at the time.

In one of the lawsuits, filed Monday by The Amalgamated Sugar Co. in Boise, Idaho, attorneys said the scheme began roughly 16 years ago amid declining rail rates. At the time, the four railways controlled about 90% of all rail freight traffic in the U.S., according to the lawsuit.

Attorneys for the sugar company wrote that the four railways had meetings, phone calls and email communications through which they embarked on the conspiracy to apply the fuel surcharges to generate profits.

“Prior to conspiring, defendants operated as businesses should: They actively competed against each other over rates generally and with respect to fuel recovery mechanisms to the benefit of their customers,” the lawyers said.

Congress largely deregulated railroads in 1980. Over the next several years, railway companies consolidated, eventually leading to the four big railroad shippers _ BNSF and Union Pacific serving much of the West and CSX and Norfolk Southern in the East.

Though the companies are individual entities, they are legally allowed to work together to some degree to ensure the continuity of the nation’s railroad network.

Today, improved technology and data manage-

ment systems have made railroads more efficient, bringing significant benefits to consumers because businesses can order just what they need when they need it, said Kenneth Button, a professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

“In retail you get greater reliability. Everyone knows when their stocks are coming in,” Button said. “All that big data has brought down for the consumer the gen-

In this July 20, 2017, file photo, a Union Pacific Railroad Company employee stands on a locomotive in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Associated Press

eral prices they are paying.”

Fuel price surcharges occur

across the transportation industry, Button said, particularly during fuel crises.q

A4 U.S.

Thursday 3 October 2019

NEWS

2020 Democrats put focus on guns amid impeachment fever

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates reiterated their call for gun control Wednesday and urged Americans to keep up the fight for change, sidestepping the issue of impeachment in Washington and whether it will divert lawmakers.

At a gun policy forum in Nevada, Cory Booker said the National Rifle Association and the corporate gun lobby are not the only forces stopping progress on gun control.

“Change never comes from Washington. It comes to Washington by Americans that demand it,” the New Jersey senator said.

He added later that “Every one of us in America, right now, by doing nothing, we are implicated in this. ....

We all have to take responsibility.”

The forum _ located about 2 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history _ was held as an effort to keep gun violence front and center of the debate and give 2020 presidential candidates a chance to showcase their plans to combat the epidemic. Negotiations between President Donald Trump's administration and lawmakers have halted over background checks legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled House, an effort that faced long odds even before the impeachment inquiry began.

Booker was among nine White House hopefuls to speak at the forum Wednesday, almost two years to the day after a man rained gunfire from the window of a high-rise hotel onto a country mu-

sic festival below, killing 58 people. The forum is being hosted by MSNBC, March for Our Lives and Giffords, the advocacy organization set up by former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot and gravely wounded during a constituent meeting in 2011 in Tucson.

Giffords opened the event with brief remarks calling for Democrats, Republicans and independents to come together and fight for change.

“Stopping gun violence takes courage. The courage to do what’s right. The courage of new ideas,” Giffords said.

In addition to Booker, the other candidates participating in the forum are former Vice President Joe Biden; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; former Obama Housing Secretary Julián Castro; California Sen. Kamala Harris; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; and businessman Andrew Yang.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was expected to attend, but he ended up undergoing a heart procedure for a blocked artery.

His campaign said he was canceling appearances “until further notice.”

O'Rourke recast his campaign around gun control after the August shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, where a gunman targeting Hispanics killed 22 people. O'Rourke even vowed to ban assault weapons, saying at a debate in Houston in September, "Hell, yes, we're gonna take your AR-15, your AK47, and we're not going to allow it to be used against your fellow Americans anymore."

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during a gun safety forum Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, in Las Vegas.

Associated Press

Buttigieg on Wednesday said it’s not true that the 2nd Amendment allowing the right to bear arms prevents the government from banning certain kinds of weapons.

“In America, it is already the case that, anybody, as far as I know, can have a slingshot. And nobody can have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “If you think about it, that means we have already decided, as a society, consistent with our Constitution, within the boundaries of the 2nd Amendment, that there’s a line.”

Warren echoed a key theme of her campaign when she said inaction on gun policy is a symptom of corruption in Washington.

"This is a fundamental question about who Washington works for, and the answer for decades now has been Washington works great for the gun industry _ it just doesn’t work great for everyone else in America."

A challenge for candidates is to distinguish themselves on the issue. O'Rourke stands out with his call for a mandatory federal buyback program for militarystyle weapons used in many mass shootings. That

goes beyond the proposals of most other Democratic candidates, who have focused on expanding background checks and banning the future manufacture and sale of certain high-powered weapons — but not making it illegal to possess those already in the market.

Castro said Wednesday that he’s open to hearing arguments for a mandatory gun buyback, “but I think there are 15 things _ different things _ that we can do,” and he said there’s a

debate among gun control activists over mandatory buybacks.

Ahead of Wednesday’s forum, Biden released a detailed gun policy plan emphasizing his role as a leading senator in adopting a background check law in 1993 and a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons as part of a sweeping 1994 crime law. That ban expired after 10 years.

Besides renewing that ban and including high-capacity magazines, Biden's proposals include an outright ban on online sales of guns and ammunition, along with a voluntary buyback program for the militarystyle guns. Biden doesn't offer a price tag for his voluntary buyback proposal but proposes a $900 million, eight-year grant program for evidence-based intervention programs in 40 cities with high homicide rates. The idea reflects a point Biden and some other candidates make often when campaigning: Mass shootings making headlines account for only a small fraction of U.S. gun deaths.q

U.S. NEWS A5

Thursday 3 October 2019

Dallas cop gets 10 years in prison for killing her neighbor

By JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — A white Dallas police officer was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for killing her black neighbor in his apartment, which she said she mistook for her own unit one floor below.

Amber Guyger didn’t appear to show much reaction, at least from the angle of a live camera stream, as the judge read the jury’s sentence. It came a day after the jury convicted her of murder in the September 2018 killing of Botham Jean.

Guyger’s sentence was met with boos and jeers by a crowd gathered outside of the courtroom, with one woman saying, “It’s a slap in the face.”

But there was a very different tenor to the postverdict scene inside the courtroom, where Jean’s brother, Brandt Jean, was allowed to address Guyger directly from the witness stand.

Brandt Jean said he forgave Guyger and that he thinks his brother would want her to turn herself over to Christ.

“I love you as a person. I don’t wish anything bad on you,” he said to the 31-year-old Guyger, before adding, “I don’t know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug?”

The judge said he could, and Brandt and Guyger both stood up, met in front of the bench and embraced while Guyger sobbed.

As Jean’s family walked out of the courtroom, the group that had been outside began a chant of, “No justice! No peace!”

Two young black women hugged each other and cried.

Prosecutors had asked jurors to sentence Guyger to at least 28 years, which is how old Jean would have been if he was still alive.

The jury could have sentenced the former officer to up to life in prison or as little as two years.

The basic facts of the unusual shooting were not in dispute throughout the trial. Guyger, returning from

a long shift that night, entered Jean’s fourth-floor apartment and shot him.

He had been eating a bowl of ice cream before she fired.

Guyger said she parked on the wrong floor and mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, which was directly below his, and mistook him for a burglar. In the frantic 911 call played repeatedly during the trial, Guyger said "I thought it was my apartment" nearly 20 times. Her lawyers argued that the identical physical appearance of the apartment complex from floor to floor frequently led to tenants going to the wrong apartments.

But prosecutors questioned how Guyger could have missed numerous signs that she was in the wrong place. They also asked why she didn’t call for backup instead of walking into the apartment if she thought she was being burglarized and suggested she was distracted by sexually explicit phone messages she had been exchanging with her police partner, who was also her lover.

The shooting drew widespread attention because of the strange circumstances and because it was one in a string of shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers.

One of the Jean family lawyers hailed the verdict as "a victory for black people in America" after it was handed down Tuesday.

The jury was largely made up of women and people of color.q

Fired Dallas police officer Amber Guyger listens as friends, family and coworkers speak in her defense during the sentencing phase of her murder trial, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, in Dallas.

Associated Press

A6 U.S.

Thursday 3 October 2019

NEWS

NTSB seeks new seat belt requirements for limos after crash

By MICHAEL HILL and TOM KRISHER ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Federal inspectors recommended stricter regulations Wednesday for safety belts and passenger seats in new vehicles stretched into limousines, saying tighter standards might have made a difference in an upstate New York limousine crash that killed 20 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board released the recommendations almost a year after a Ford Excursion SUV that had been modified into a stretch limo blew through a T-intersection in rural Schoharie and slammed into an earthen embankment. The crash near a popular country store on Oct. 6, 2018, killed the driver, 17 passengers on a birthday outing and two pedestrians.

It was the deadliest transportation disaster in the United States in about a decade.

The agency recommended lap-shoulder belts in all seating positions and that limousine seating systems meet minimum crash safety performance standards. The recommendations would apply only to new vehicles stretched into limousines, not to existing limousines, the NTSB said. The agency also cited limousine crashes in Illinois and New Jersey in making the national recommendations.

In the New York crash, the NTSB found some seats separated from their anchorage points in the significantly modified vehicle, which included side-facing seats. None of the 17 passengers appeared to

In this Oct. 7, 2018 file photo, a New York state trooper and members of the National Transportation Safety Board view the scene of a fatal crash that killed 20 people in Schoharie, N.Y. Associated Press

be wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, the board said, but the poorly designed belts “would not have provided adequate protection” anyway. The driver was wearing his lap and shoulder belt and his air bag deployed, but the NTSB determined the frontend crash was not survivable from the driver’s seat.

The report said that “injuries to occupants within the passenger compartment might have been mitigated by a combination of adequate seat integrity, welldesigned passenger lap/ shoulder belts, and proper seat belt use.”

The vehicle was manufactured as an 8,600-pound (3,900-kilogram) SUV and was modified into a limousine weighing more than 13,000 pounds (5,900 kilograms), according to the report. Once modified, the

limousine was not subject to some occupant safety standards that apply to other classes of vehicles.

“Most of the seats were not properly designed to ensure occupant protection,” NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Prosecutors in New York allege the limo company's operator, Nauman Hussain, allowed an improperly licensed driver to operate an "unserviceable" vehicle. Just weeks before the crash, the limo had failed a state inspection that examined such things as the chassis, suspension and brakes.

Hussain has pleaded not guilty to criminally negligent homicide, and his lawyer has said investigators rushed to judgment. His trial is scheduled for next

year.

The NTSB, which investigates crashes and makes safety recommendations to other federal and state agencies, is expected to examine the cause of the crash in a future report.

The safety belt and seat strength recommendations will go to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has been reluctant to issue new safety regulations since President Donald Trump took office in 2017. During his campaign, Trump pledged to cut what he said are unnecessary government regulations.

“While we concur with NTSB’s recommendations, based on the administration’s complete failure since day one to issue new car safety regulations, it is unlikely there will be any significant new federal requirements regarding lim-

ousine safety,” said Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit advocacy group.

In a statement, the highway traffic agency said it welcomed the safety board’s “initial analysis” and “looks forward to reviewing the full investigation, data, and analysis when they are complete.”

An NTSB spokesman said that when it issues recommendations for safety rules before an investigation is finished, it does so with the hopes that a federal agency will start on regulations quickly.

The safety board also recommended that New York transportation officials who perform inspections ensure that limo seat belts are functional. New York officials said that’s already standard protocol.

In addition, the safety board recommended that the National Limousine Association promote seat belt use. The trade group said a statement said it is prepared to support “prudent and consequential safety regulations.”

An attorney representing the estate of crash victims Adam and Abigail Jackson, who was one of four sisters killed in the crash, said Wednesday that in many ways the report raises more questions than it answers.

“Further, the slowness of the process keeps these families in limbo and does not allow them to grieve,” said Cynthia S. LaFave, “but rather leaves them with uncertainty which they must deal with while still struggling to go forward without their loved ones.”q

Prosecutor: Mexico-to-Oregon ring had $15M in meth, heroin PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — U.S. authorities said Wednesday they completed drugtrafficking busts in Oregon that involved an international network of couriers, dealers and stash-house operators who smuggled methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine worth about $15 million from Mexico to Portland.

Federal, state and local law enforcement conducted raids and arrested 20 people, U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said. Ten people were already in custody in the case, and 11, including the two suspected top leaders, remained at large after being indicted.

Mexican kingpins smuggled the drugs to two Or-

egon distributors, who then spread it to stash houses, dealers, couriers and money launderers, authorities said.

The operation “marks one of the largest takedowns of a drug trafficking organization in the history of the District of Oregon,” Williams said. “The very large quantities of drugs trafficked

and the possession of firearms will subject many of these defendants to very long prison sentences _ up to life.”

At one point, operatives in Portland were filling weekly orders from customers for more than 75 pounds (35 kilograms) of methamphetamine and 55 pounds (25 kilograms) of heroin,

he said. “This amounts to roughly 600,000 individual user doses,” Williams said.

The organization would routinely change the location of stash houses, rotate vehicles and phones, and pay individual couriers to take time off if they were nearing detection by law enforcement, the prosecutor said.q

U.S. NEWS A7

Thursday 3 October 2019

World War II-era bomber crashes; at least 7 reported dead

By CHRIS EHRMANN and DAVE COLLINS Associated Press WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn.

(AP) — A World War II-era B-17 bomber with 13 people aboard crashed and burned at the Hartford airport after encountering mechanical trouble on takeoff Wednesday, and a state official said at least seven were killed.

The four-engine, propeller-driven plane struggled to get into the air and slammed into a maintenance shed at Bradley International Airport as the pilots circled back for a landing, officials and witnesses said.

It had 10 passengers and three crew members, authorities said.

The state official who gave the death toll was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Connecticut Public Safety Commissioner James Rovella said hours after the crash that some of those on board were severely burned, and “the victims are very difficult to identify.”

At least six people were taken to the hospital, three of them critically injured, authorities said. One person on the ground was also hurt.

The retired, civilian-registered plane was associated with the Collings Foundation, an educational group that brought its Wings of Freedom vintage aircraft display to the airport this week, officials said.

The vintage bomber _ also known as a Flying Fortress,

one of the most celebrated allied planes of World War II _ was used to take history buffs and aircraft enthusiasts on short flights, during which they could get up and walk around the loud and windy interior.

“Right now my heart really goes out to the families who are waiting,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “And we are going to give them the best information we can as soon as we can in an honest way.”

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate the cause of the crash.

The plane was a few minutes into the flight when the pilots reported a problem and said it was not gaining altitude, officials said. It lost control upon touching down and struck the shed just before 10 a.m.

The airport _ New England’s second-busiest _ was closed afterward but reopened a single runway about 3½ hours later.

Flight records from FlightAware shows the plane had traveled about 8 miles (13 kilometers) and reached an altitude of 800 feet (244 meters).

In recordings of audio transmissions, the pilot told an air traffic controller that he needed to return to the airport and land immediately.

Asked why, he said: “Number four engine, we’d like to return and blow it out.”

Brian Hamer, of Norton, Massachusetts, said he was less than a mile away when he saw a B-17, “which you don’t normally see,” fly directly overhead, apparently trying without success to

Wreckage is seen where World War II-era bomber plane crashed at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

gain altitude.

One of the engines began to sputter, and smoke came out the back, Hamer said. The plane made a wide turn and headed back toward the airport, he said.

“Then we heard all the rumbling and the thunder, and all the smoke comes up, and we kind of figured it wasn’t good,” Hamer said.

Antonio Arreguin, who had parked at a construction site near the airport, said he did not see the plane but heard the explosion and could feel the heat from “this big ball of orange fire” about 250 yards away.

The same plane also crashed in 1987 at an air

show near Pittsburgh, injuring several people, the Collings Foundation said.

Hit by a severe crosswind as it touched down, the bomber overshot a runway and plunged down a hill. It was later repaired.

The crash reduces to nine the number of B-17s actively flying, said Rob Bardua, spokesman for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, near Dayton, Ohio.

Boeing-built B-17 Flying Fortresses _ 74 feet (23 meters) long, with a wingspan of 104 feet (32 meters) _ were used in daylight bombing raids against Germany during the war. The missions were extremely risky, with high casualty rates, but

helped break the Nazis’ industrial war machine.

The B-17 that went down was built in 1945, too late to see combat in the war, according to the Collings Foundation.

It served in a rescue squadron and a military air transport service before being subjected to the effects of three nuclear explosions during testing, the foundation said. It was later sold as scrap and eventually was restored. The foundation bought it in 1986.

“This is kind of shocking.

It’s a loss to lose a B-17,” said Hamer, whose father served in the Air Force. “I mean, there aren’t very many of those left.”q

A8 WORLD

Thursday 3 October 2019

NEWS

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, left, talks to European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier during a weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press Continued from Front

The new proposals focus on maintaining an open border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland _ the key sticking point to a Brexit deal. The U.K. proposes to do that by keeping Northern Ireland closely aligned to EU rules for trade in goods, possibly for an extended period.

The proposals, and Johnson’s letter, were conciliatory, despite having been billed by Johnson’s office as a take-it-or-leave it “final offer.”

Instead, Johnson used a speech to his Conservative Party to implore the bloc, and Britons, to end more than three years of acrimonious wrangling over the terms of the U.K.’s exit from the EU. “Let’s get Brexit done,” was the repeated refrain to delegates at the conference in Manchester, northwest England.

British voters in 2016 narrow-

ly chose to leave the EU but the country remains deeply divided over how to do it.

In his speech, Johnson said people who voted for Brexit “are beginning to feel that they are being taken for fools." He warned of “grave consequences for trust in our democracy” if Britain did not leave the EU on the scheduled date of Oct. 31.

He said the government was offering “constructive and reasonable proposals” to the EU. The plan is “a compromise by the U.K. And I hope very much that our friends understand that and compromise in their turn,” Johnson said.

But the plan is likely to face deep skepticism from EU leaders, who will need to be convinced the U.K. has a workable proposal to avoid checks on goods or people crossing the Irish border.

A Brexit agreement between the EU and Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa

May, was rejected by the U.K. Parliament, largely because of opposition to the "backstop," an insurance policy designed to ensure there is no return to customs posts or other infrastructure on the Irish border.

An open border underpins both the local economy and Northern Ireland's peace process. But Johnson and other British Brexit supporters oppose the backstop because it would keep the U.K. tightly bound to EU trade rules in order to avoid customs checks — limiting the country's ability to strike new trade deals around the world.

Johnson insisted that “we will under no circumstances have checks at or near the border in Northern Ireland."

The British proposal involves “an all-island regulatory zone on the island of Ireland, covering all goods including agrifood.” That would keep Northern Ireland in a regulatory zone with the EU for food, agricultural and industrial products, removing the need for checks.

The U.K. proposal does not put a time limit on that status, though it would have to be renewed every four years by the Northern Ireland Assembly. However, that assembly has been suspended for more than two years by a dispute between the main Unionist and Nationalist powersharing parties.

Under the plan there would still need to be customs checks, but Johnson suggested they could be carried out away from the border at “other points on the supply chain.”

The Irish government said Prime Minister Leo Varadkar spoke to Johnson by phone on Wednesday. It said that

while "the proposals do not fully meet the agreed objectives of the backstop," Varadkar would "study them in further detail."

Johnson has vowed that Britain will leave on Oct. 31, with or without a Brexit deal.

In Wednesday’s speech he repeated his contention that the U.K. can handle any bumps that come from tumbling out of the bloc without a deal, which would mean the instant imposition of customs checks and other barriers between Britain and the EU, its biggest trading partner.

A no-deal Brexit is "not an outcome we want ... (but) it is an outcome for which we are ready," he said.

But the U.K. government and businesses both say the disruptions would be substantial, with the flow of goods coming into Britain through the major Channel port of Dover cut in half.

Many lawmakers want to prevent a no-deal exit, and have passed a law that compels the government to seek a delay to Brexit if it can't get an agreement with the EU by Oct. 19. Johnson says he won’t do that _ although he also insists he will obey the law.

He has not explained how doing both will be possible.

Johnson also suffered a major setback when the U.K. Supreme Court ruled last week that his attempt to shut down Parliament for five weeks was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating Parliament’s ability to scrutinize the government’s Brexit plan.

The British government said Wednesday it will ask Queen Elizabeth II to suspend Parliament again next week _ but just for a few days ahead of a speech on Oct. 14 laying

out the administration’s plans. A short suspension of that kind is routine and usually happens about once a year.

Johnson, who has had a tumultuous 70 days in office, is eager to refocus attention away from Brexit. On Wednesday he delivered a speech peppered with puns, grand claims about Britain’s greatness and jokes at the expense of his opponents _ chiefly leftwing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, whom he dubbed a “communist cosmonaut.”

It was also, pointedly, a pre-election speech, with a grab-bag of promises: more money for hospitals and police, unspecified tax cuts, greener buses and faster internet access.

The brash Brexit champion is popular with many Conservatives, who welcome his energy and optimism after three years of Brexit gridlock under May. Some, though, have qualms about his personal conduct and his divisive tactics, which include using words like "surrender" and "betrayal" about opponents of Brexit.

He has been dogged by allegations that he handed out perks to a female friend's business while he was mayor of London and groped the thigh of a female journalist at a lunch two decades ago. Johnson denies impropriety in both cases.

The claims have not dented his popularity among many Conservatives.

“We don’t need Saint Boris, thank you,” said Jean Chesworth, a delegate from Newcastle-underLyme in central England.

“We’re none of us saints.

We can all look at the skeletons in our cupboards.”q

WORLD NEWS A9 Netanyahu’s legal saga reaches critical stage in Israel Thursday 3 October 2019

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Prosecutors began a pre-indictment hearing for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, opening a critical stage in a lengthy legal saga that threatens to end the career of the long-serving Israeli leader and has paralyzed the country’s political system.

Netanyahu’s lawyers sat down with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit for 11 hours of discussions that will determine whether criminal charges will be pressed against the prime minister in a series of corruption cases. If formal charges are filed, Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, could come under heavy pressure to step down.

Mandelblit already has recommended that Netanyahu be indicted on fraud, breach of trust and bribery charges in three cases. Under Israeli law, Netanyahu is entitled to plead his case at a hearing in a last-ditch attempt to persuade prosecutors to drop their case.

Netanyahu did not appear at Wednesday’s hearing, sending instead a highpowered 10-member legal team. As they entered the Israeli Justice Ministry, his lawyers ruled out a plea bargain and expressed confidence that the charges would be dropped.

"We are going to present not only the evidence everyone is aware of but also new evidence. We are sure that once we present our findings there will be no choice but to close the case," Netanyahu attorney Amit Haddad said.

After Wednesday’s marathon session ended, Netanyahu’s lawyers told reporters they were confident they would be able to refute all charges.

Throughout the day, Netanyahu took to social media to make the case for his innocence, defiantly pledging that the case against him would “fall apart.”

Netanyahu’s legal woes lie at the heart of a deadlock that has left the country with a caretaker government. In national elections

last month, neither Netanyahu nor his chief challenger, Benny Gantz, secured the required parliamentary majority to form a new government.

Both men have expressed support for a unity government as a way out of the deadlock. But they remain far apart on who should lead it and what smaller parties would join them.

Gantz and his centrist Blue and White Party have so far rejected a partnership with Netanyahu, citing his legal woes. A failure to reach a deal could trigger an unprecedented third election in less than a year.

Netanyahu is desperate to stay on as prime minister, a post he can use as a pulpit as he tries to fend off any charges. Israeli law requires Cabinet ministers to step down if charged with a crime. But the law is vague for sitting prime ministers, meaning he could theoretically remain in the post if he is indicted, though he would likely face calls to step aside.

For this reason, his opponents accuse him of stalling in unity talks and pushing for another election, which would allow Netanyahu to remain as prime minister for at least another three months.

Late Tuesday, Gantz abruptly called off a planned meeting with Netanyahu.

“One man is holding the country hostage,” said Yair Lapid, a top Blue and White leader. “One man is doing everything to lead us to elections: Benjamin Netanyahu.”

The allegations against Netanyahu include suspicions that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of champagne and cigars from billionaire friends, offered to trade favors with a newspaper publisher and used his influence to help a wealthy telecom magnate in exchange for favorable coverage on a popular news site.

Netanyahu has called the allegations part of a witch hunt, lashing out against the media, police, prosecutors and the justice system.

In last month’s election, he

fell short of mustering a parliamentary majority in favor of granting him immunity from prosecution.

The hearing is expected to last at least four days, and it could take weeks for the attorney general to render his final decision. However, legal experts say the likelihood of an indictment is high, given the mountains of evidence collected by police over years of investigations and the prosecution’s seeming consensus of pursuing a trial.

Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, is responsible for designating a politician to try to form a coalition, and last week, he selected Netanyahu, believing he had the best chance of success. Netanyahu has up to six weeks to do so, but he

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, right, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2109. The office of the president says Netanyahu has been given the task of forming a new government.

Associated Press

has indicated he will give up before then if he feels he can’t reach a deal with Gantz. Gantz would likely be given a chance to form his own coalition, though his odds of success appear

slim. There are deep divisions among Gantz’s potential coalition allies, and Netanyahu’s Likud party has so far rejected his demand to have Netanyahu replaced as party leader.q

A10 WORLD

NEWS Protests escalate in Iraq: 9 dead, hundreds wounded Thursday 3 October 2019

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA BAGHDAD (AP) — At least seven people were killed and dozens were wounded in clashes that spread across several Iraqi provinces on Wednesday as security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas for the second day to disperse anti-government protesters demanding jobs, improved services and an end to corruption.

The deaths brought the overall number of protesters killed in two days of violence to nine. Protests on Tuesday had left two dead _ one in Baghdad and another in the city of Nasiriyah _ and over 200 wounded.

The renewed clashes occurred despite a massive security dragnet mounted by the government in an effort to quash the economically-driven protests.

Hundreds of heavily armed security forces and riot police deployed on Baghdad streets, blocking all intersections leading to a major central square Wednesday to prevent a repeat of Tuesday’s protests. Parked armored personnel carriers and SUVs stood guard and by mid-afternoon, residents said authorities had shut down social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Groups of protesters continued to take to the streets, some of them calling for toppling the government.

Thick black smoke hung over the city as demonstrators set fire to tires and garbage containers. Bursts of heavy gunfire could be heard intermittently. At night, protesters closed the road leading to Baghdad’s airport with roadblocks and burning tires, keeping the way into the city open for arrivals.

The confrontations quickly spread to at least seven other provinces in the country, with an estimated 3,000 demonstrators taking to the streets in the southern city of Basra in a largely peaceful protest on Wednesday evening. Protests and clashes were also reported in Najaf, Nasiriyah, Waset, Diwaniyah and in other places.

Civilians take cover while Iraq security forces fire tear gas and live fire in the air to disperse antigovernment protesters in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

The violence was some of the worst between protesters and security forces in Iraq, signaling that the war-weary country could be facing a new round of political instability. Iraq has been caught in the middle of U.S.-Iran tensions in the Middle East, putting an additional strain on the fragile government in Baghdad that hosts thousands of U.S. troops and powerful paramilitary forces allied with Iran.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad called for restraint from all sides. “The right to demonstrate peacefully is a fundamental right in all democracies, but there is no place for violence in demonstrations from any side,” it posted on Twitter.

The protests, organized on social media, started in Tahrir Square on Tuesday, initially driven by economy woes. They began peacefully, calling for an end to corruption, improved basic services and more jobs. But they soon turned violent after security forces fought back demonstrators with water cannons, tear gas and live ammunition.

Protesters responded by calling for toppling the government, throwing stones at security forces and setting tires and trash containers on fire. At least two protesters were killed

and more than 200 were wounded.

A few dozen protesters tried to reach Tahrir Square again on Wednesday morning but were met with scores of riot police who formed a human barrier and soldiers who blocked roads, sometimes with barbed wire. Security forces again fired tear gas and live ammunition into the air to disperse the protesters, chasing them away, according to officials.

Saadoun Street, a major commercial thoroughfare leading to Tahrir Square, was deserted and all the shops and restaurants were closed. Smoke could be seen near Tahrir and intermittent gunfire could be heard, as well as ambulance sirens.

“They have transformed Tahrir Square into Tahrir barracks,” said Hussein Saleh, 24. “There are more security forces than there are protesters,” he added, standing with a small placard that read: “I am protesting to take my rights.”

Security and medical officials said three protesters were killed in Baghdad Wednesday and four in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of the capital. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. In Zaafaraniyah, a 10-year-

old girl was also killed when she was hit by a car speeding away from a checkpoint amid protests.

Security officials said authorities imposed a curfew in several southern Iraqi cities including Nasiriyah, Amara and Hilla after protesters attacked government buildings there. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations NetBlocks, which monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, reported that Internet access was cut off across much of Iraq and social and messaging apps blocked amid the growing unrest.

The protests are the most serious challenge to Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi's nearly year-old government. The premier held a national security emergency meeting Wednesday. His office later said the meeting denounced the violence that accompanied the protests and said measures will be taken to protect citizens and public property and that the government will spare no effort to fulfill the demands of the protesters.

Earlier in the morning, municipal workers were spraying Tahrir Square with water while bulldozers removed debris from Tuesday’s demonstrations. A bridge that

leads from the square to Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone — home to government offices and foreign embassies — was closed.

Activists drove around in a car, distributing water to protesters and soldiers alike.

“We are not against you, you are our brothers,” one activist told a soldier as he offered him a cold bottle of water.

In Zaafaraniya, southeast of Baghdad, at least five people were treated for breathing difficulties after police used tear gas to break up a small protest.

Police also used tear gas in al-Shaab, north of the Iraqi capital. Security officials said five people were arrested in al-Shaab and three in Zaafaraniya.

The protests appear to be spontaneous and without political leadership, organized by people on social media against corruption and lack of basic services, such as electricity and water.

Dozens of university graduates unable to find jobs in the corruption-plagued but oil-rich country also joined the rallies. Politicians denounced the violence and at least one, influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, called for an investigation.

Iraq’s interior and health ministries issued a joint statement saying one person was killed in Baghdad on Tuesday and 200 were wounded, including 40 members of the security forces.

The statement said authorities "regretted" the violence that accompanied the protests, blaming "a group of rioters" for inciting violence.

The U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Iraq, Jeanine HennisPlasschaert, expressed “grave concern” over the violence at the demonstrations in Baghdad and elsewhere.

“Every individual has the right to speak freely, in keeping with the law,” she said in a statement, urging authorities to exercise restraint in their handling of the protests.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Thursday 3 October 2019

In this image made from video, British High Commissioner Laura Clarke receives a hongi from a local when she visited the town of Gisborne, New Zealand, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

Britain expresses 'regret' for killing Maori 250 years ago

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The British government on Wednesday expressed "regret" that British explorers killed some of the first indigenous Maori they met 250 years ago, but stopped short of issuing a full apology.

British High Commissioner Laura Clarke met with Maori tribal leaders in the town of Gisborne as New Zealand marked the anniversary of Captain James Cook and the crew of his ship Endeavour arriving in 1769.

Clarke's words held historic significance but fell short of the full apology that some had sought from the British royal family.

Soon after Cook and his crew arrived, the sailors feared they were under attack after encountering Maori armed with weapons.

But many scholars now believe Maori were likely only issuing a ceremonial challenge.

The sailors shot and killed

an important leader, Te Maro, and over the following days killed eight more Maori before a Tahitian priest managed to mediate between the sides.

The British High Commission said the exact wording of Clarke's speech to Maori leaders would remain private, but that she would acknowledge the pain of those first encounters and extend her sympathy to the descendants of those killed.

Britain has also been returning some historic artifacts taken by Cook's crew, including canoe paddles.

In a Facebook video, the Maori "iwi" or tribe Rongowhakaata described that first encounter in blunt terms: "After only being here for two hours, Cook and his crew had trespassed, terrorized, killed and stolen from us," a narrator says.

The high commission was careful to point out that Wednesday's expression of regret came from the British government and not from the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.q

In this Nov. 20, 2019, file photo, students burn a Chinese flag as they protest against the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping outside the Presidential palace in Manila, Philippines.

Associated Press

Philippine official tweets order for new protest vs China MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine foreign secretary used Twitter to order the immediate filing of a diplomatic protest against China on Wednesday after Chinese coast guard ships reportedly neared a Philippine-occupied shoal in the disputed South China Sea. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., who is accompanying Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on a visit to Russia, issued the normally confidential order to officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Relations between the Philippines and China have vastly improved under Duterte, but territorial rifts have remained a thorny issue.

The Philippine military chief and other officials have reported new activities by Chinese coast guard vessels at Second Thomas Shoal, where Filipino marines keep watch aboard a long-grounded navy ship.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a strategic waterway where U.S. Navy ships and aircraft have patrolled for decades.

Locsin tweeted: "Do I have to fly home to file the goddamned diplomatic protest myself? That's the military speaking. Not some friggin' civilian media outlet. File now!!!"

There was no immediate comment from Chinese Embassy officials in Manila. In the past they have claimed Chinese sovereignty over the shoal.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, a Washington-based think tank which monitors movements in the disputed waters, says Chinese coast guard ships routinely patrol Second Thomas Shoal, the Luconia Shoals off Malaysia and Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines to project a Chinese pres-

ence in key areas which Beijing claims but where it does not have any permanent facilities.

Chinese coast guard ships have guarded Second Thomas from a close distance since 2013 in a quiet standoff with a small contingent of Filipino marines manning a rusty but still actively commissioned navy ship that Manila deliberately grounded in 1999 after China seized nearby Mischief Reef five years earlier.

China has demanded the Philippines pull out the World War II-era tank landing ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, and also warned Manila from undertaking construction in the area, a rich fishing ground. Manila has refused to withdraw its navy ship and has protested past Chinese blockades of Philippine vessels transporting supplies to the marines stationed at the shoal.q

A12 WORLD

NEWS Venezuelan border town swells with internal migrants Thursday 3 October 2019

By LUZ DARY DEPABLOS and MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela (AP) — Midday is approaching and the bus terminal in this border town is in a frenzy.

Merchants heading for the center of Venezuela hop on buses and load them with sacks of rice, boxes of medicine, cartons of toothpaste and even car tires that they bought in neighboring Colombia. On the arrivals side, exhausted travelers descend from buses and make their way toward the border, where they will shop for food or get their passports stamped to leave Venezuela for good.

Amid the screams of street vendors and the pedestrian mayhem, dozens of young men with metal carts hustle back and forth between the bus terminal and the border, carrying suitcases and merchandise. They are known as “lomo taxistas” _ taxis of the lower back _ because they spend much of the day hauling around heavy loads on their backs.

“I didn’t expect to stay here, but I had to because I didn’t have more money to continue my journey,” said Richard Rondon, a lomo taxista from central Venezuela, who arrived in San

A man carries a load on his back as he works as a “lomo taxista,” or taxi of the lower back, outside a bus terminal in San Antonio, Venezuela, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019.

Associated Press

Antonio last year.

Rondon said he makes around $8 a day hauling large sacks of goods around the San Antonio bus terminal, which is about four blocks from the border.

It can be backbreaking work in extreme temperatures that often climb to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), but the 26-year-old says itis better than staying in his home state of Aragua.

“Food has become very unaffordable there,” he said. “And it’s also hard to get a job.”

Food shortages and hyperinflation in Venezuela are pushing thousands of people to leave the country each day in search of a better life.

But many who have little money to migrate, or prefer to stay closer to home, are settling in border towns like San Antonio, where the

informal economy of black market goods and street vending provide them with some work opportunities.

San Antonio’s mayor, William Gomez, says that over the past two years, the town’s population has grown from 66,000 to 113,000 due to the wave of internal migration. He says the lomo taxistas are one of several informal occupations that have popped up as more people arrive from

the interior of Venezuela.

“These are hard-working young men,” said Gomez, who is from the Venezuela’s governing socialist party.

“With this type of work, they are finding some relief from the economic blockade that has been imposed on Venezuela.”

At the bus terminal, Rondon blames Venezuela’s government and its economic policies for the country’s problems, saying that something “needs to change” so children don’t have to face such hardships.

He lives with his two small children and his pregnant wife in a room that the family rents for $3 a day. Power outages are frequent, like elsewhere in Venezuela’s border areas. Running water is available only once a week.

“It’s uncomfortable, because we also have to share the bathroom with other families,” said Francis Sosa, Rondon’s 20-yearold wife. “But here we can eat well. We had our own home in Aragua but it was tough to find food there.”

Rondon works every day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. to earn enough to pay the rent, afford some food and have some money left over for his childrens' needs.q

Argentina Holocaust museum takes custody over Nazi artifacts

Nazi artifacts discovered by police in 2017 are displayed during a press conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

By DEBORA REY BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The Museum of the Holocaust in Argentina’s capital on Wednesday

took custody of the largest collection of Nazi artifacts discovered in the country’s history.

Federal police and Inter-

pol agents found the more than 70 Nazi objects hidden behind a bookcase in a collector’s home north of Buenos Aires in 2017 as part of an investigation into artworks of illicit origins. The Nazi items include busts of Adolf Hitler, an instrument to measure people’s heads to supposedly determine their racial purity and statues of the Nazi eagle with a swastika under its talons.

Owning Nazi objects in Argentina can be illegal if it is determined that the items incite racial or religious hate in public, although they can be allowed in private. It has not been determined if the collector violated the anti-discrimination law, although he has been charged with owning

pieces of illegal origin.

Agents with Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8, 2017.

A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.

Argentine and German experts say most of the objects are original. They also include toys that authorities have said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a Nazi hourglass and a box of swastika-emblazoned harmonicas. The collection also includes a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.

The main hypothesis

among investigators and members of Argentina’s Jewish community is that the items were brought in

by Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for some of the most infamous war criminals.

The objects will remain in custody at the Museum of the Holocaust while the investigation continues.

The museum’s president, Marcelo Mindlin, said Wednesday that the items encouraged “hate, death and destruction.” He said they will become part of an exhibit “in the service of transmitting democratic values, education and the fight for memory so tragedies like the Holocaust are not repeated.”q

A13

Thursday 3 October 2019

Happy Community Initiative is looking for your support:

“For the safety of our teens we need after school programs”

is the number one activity, the girls prefer music/dance/theatre as a second choice, and surprisingly the boys put cooking as their number two preference. The location they prefer this to happen is the community center in their neighborhood.

ORANJESTAD — Carol Kock is a freelance consultant on policies and research who worked for more than twenty years for the government as a policy advisor in the field of Public Health and Social Affairs. Recently the professional did research about the interest of Aruban youth for after school programs. The result is that over 60 % of the participants say yes to after school programs. “Our youth is home alone due to the necessity of parents that need to work to pay the bills. They are in a vulnerable situation and we can do something about it.”

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recently initiated a research about the status of the rights of children worldwide. Aruba, being part of the Dutch Kingdom, was asked to send a report and for the input a survey was conducted among the secondary schools on Aruba. The Happy Community Initiative (HCI) at the same time is working on the funding for after school programs, and in that light they participated in the questionnaire for their specific interest. Three questions were incorporated: 1. would you be interested in the participation of an after school program?

2. What kind of activities would you like to do? 3. Which location would you choose?

A clear YES Out of the 469 surveyed girls and boys 60.1% said yes to participation in an after school program, 20.7 % were not sure, and 19.2 % said no we do not want that. There is an equal amount of interest between girls and boys, in age the younger teens are more interested than the older teens. The type of school they attend is of influence too: the vocational school teens were less interested in after school programs than the students of higher general secondary education. For the survey almost all secondary schools are represented. Kock: “We selected a class at almost each school and introduced our survey. We have about 8000 youngsters on the island, the questionnaire represents this group very well and it is clear that teens are very much interested in a program after school.”

Sports are #1 The options for activities were homework support, cooking, sports, music/ dance/theatre, crafts & arts, volunteer work and leisure time with friends. The first three chosen were sports, music/dance/theater and leisure with friends. For both sexes sports

Together we are strong To gather as many stakeholders as possible in the area of youth a full day convention was organized

by AsociacionTrabao di Hubentudna Aruba (ATHA) meaning the Association of Youth Workers together with CEDE _the founder of HCI. It turned out to be a very successful day. Kock explains that the goal of this day was to build the frame for a high quality after school program. “Think of sports clubs, NGO’s, GO’s, youngsters …. 45 organizations were invited and 39 attended. The group was divided into smaller groups and were set up to brainstorm about a concept, values and a clear frame to work within. There was also a group of teens charged with the task to decide a name

for the program which is to be GEN297.” According to Kock it is essential to work on a solution and not be stuck in the problem. “You cannot always point fingers to parents, the reality is that we live on a tourist destination making life more expensive in general. For locals it is therefore in most cases necessary that both parents work.

For single parents a fulltime job is a must to make sure the bills are being paid. Consequences are that the teens are home alone, lack attention and parental guidance. It makes them vulnerable and they are easier manipulated which brings them into unsafe situations.”q

Our Newest Column is All about YOUth and Happiness ORANJESTAD — Our newest column Happy Community Initiative is published bi-weekly on Thursdays in Aruba Today. We inform you about this dynamic, new projects from a different angle to give you a complete feel, so follow us and stay engaged!

The Happy Community Initiative is a visitor charity program that you can help strengthen Aruba’s community by donating to good causes. CEDE Aruba, a dynamic community foundation, the Aruba Timeshare Association (ATSA), the Aruba Tourism Authority and several companies collaborate in this platform for visitors who would like to make a donation, but also volunteer in the future. The priority is set to support projects for Aruban youths. CEDE Aruba will make sure that the donations reach meaningful projects of local non-profits, based upon quality and transparency of finances of the offered programs. In this manner, you can be assured that your donation will reach its goal! With your donation, you support Aruban children with after school programs, mentorship activities and social support. You can donate at the kiosks in the lobby of several hotels (Costa Linda, Playa Linda, Paradise Beach Villas and La Cabana) or you can donate on the website: https://happycommunityaruba.org/donate.q Copyright CEDE Aruba

A14 LOCAL

Thursday 3 October 2019

New: Sports wagering at Eagle Casino & Double Down Sports Bar EAGLE BEACH — Eagle Aruba Casino and Double Down Sports bar and Grill now offers sports wagering. They introduce their new sports betting kiosks which are a player’s paradise for sport wagering. Eagle Casino & Double Down Sports bar is the only sports bar on the island that can offer sports wagering and because they are almost always open, you can get in on the action around the clock!

The betting process is a simple one.

Sports wager enthusiasts while visiting the Double Down can use the nearby self-service kiosks in the ca-

sino to place their wagers. Upon entering their bets, they receive a ticket, and once their event has ended, they can present that ticket to collect their earnings. Ev-

erything is there from boxing to baseball, tennis to hockey, basketball and football – that’s only the shortlist!

There is a wide variety of betting lines for sporting events throughout the world, that run seasonally and some all year round. Some events you would never expect to have the opportunity to wager on, like the European “Champions League”, “La Liga” Spanish Premier League and Rugby, are right here!

The casino offers a vast number of choices in wager types, including straight bets, parlays, teasers, Round Robin, Money Line, Over &

Under Totals as well as wagers on the points system. “I think we offer a unique experience all around, with the resort and all, we have to offer. It provides an experience for an entire family. If you want to come with the family, [and] if one of the adults wanted to come over at the Casino and Sports Bar to bet on sports while the others enjoy our facility and its surrounding, no problem. Amazing Eagle Beach is within a stone’s throw distance too. All that together is our special niche that we can offer.

So, what are you waiting for?

Come play in Paradise!” q

Honoring of loyal visitors at Divi Tamarijn The honorees were: Brian & Diane Carlos residents

of Windsor Locks who have been visiting the Island for 20 years consecutively.

Amanda Price resident of Connecticut who has also been visiting the Island for 20 years consecutively and Ryleigh

EAGLE BEACH — Recently, Darline de Cuba had the great pleasure to honor a Loyal and friendly

visitors of Aruba as Goodwill Ambassadors & Distinguished Visitors at their home away from home.

The symbolic honorary title is presented on behalf of the Minister of Tourism, as a token of appreciation to

the guests who visit Aruba between 10-20-35 and more consecutive years.

Mc.

Donald

a resident of Windsor Connecticut who has been visiting the Island for 10 consecutive years.

The honorees stated that they love coming to the island for its lovely people, to relax by the beaches, the great weather and excellent food. Ms. De Cuba together with Mr. Francis Ridderstap of the Divi Tamarijn thanked them for choosing Aruba as their vacation destination and as their home away from home for so many years.q

LOCAL A15

Thursday 3 October 2019

Bohemian Restaurant: Tonight live Violinist Angela A garden full of strong trees and dressed up in New York-style industrial-look elements creates a cosmopolitan vibe while at the same time the tropical breeze and outside dining connect to the Caribbean.

Waiters with French barrettes and pant suspenders service you with a happy and loose style with on the background the sounds of underground chill music varied with French classics.

ONLY French owned Restaurant The French are famous for their culinary art.

Bohemain is the ONLY French owned restaurant on Aruba and offers you Grande gastronomy in a hip decor. French classics like Coq-au-Vin, Beef tartare, Escargot, Duck Foie Gras Terrine, Bouillabaisse Fish Soup, Tuna-Tartare, Quinoa-Salad, Rib-Eye Butter Maître-D, Crème Brulee, Chocolate Lava Cake and Pineapple Carpaccio are on the menu. Mediterranean inspired dishPALM BEACH — Avant-garde from France, nonconformist in style and ethnic in cuisine. That is what the new kid in town is about. Bohemian Restaurant is different, unconventional and a rebel with a cause. The cause is to make you feel king in this hidden garden with outstanding dishes that connect you to the European liaisons of Aruba. TONIGHT has an extra magic: the live Violinist Angela performs! From traditional French and Italian famous melodies to more upbeat pop and rock and roll. A taste for everyone.

es like Ras el Hanout Fish Kebbab, Honey and Rosemary Lamb Shank, Moroccan Lamb sausages, Mediterranean Sea Bass and Grilled Local Catch are other finger licking options. Directly imported wines from wineries in Europe make up for a perfect pairing. You are welcome to enjoy the Happy Hours and Daily Early Birds from 5 to 7 PM. Bon appetite!

Free Parking available at the parking lot in front of Barcelo Resort.q Make your reservations through their website: https://bohemianaruba.com.

Call them at 00 297 280 8448.

Facebook: Bohemian.

A16 LOCAL

Thursday 3 October 2019

NEW IN THE MARKET!! Your Own Beach Villa with a Backyard of Green Tranquility

Azure Beach Residences The Villas

EAGLE BEACH — Sometimes everything comes together. You’re looking for this special family place while vacationing, you’d like to make an investment that brings you a profit and you want to deal with a trustworthy and secure company. Azure Beach Residences has all of the above under one roof. The condominiums are already a big hit on the island and are selling like hotcakes. And now this success extends with a complete NEW opportunity: only six fantastic villas on the border of a bird sanctuary and opposite the white-sand Eagle Beach. Let’s take a close look at this hidden gem.

It has a modern architecture with panoramic windows where the green environment from the bird sanctuary (Bubali Plas) can flow freely inside.

That is the feel you get with the Azure Villas. Just behind the condominium towers we have found this quiet space where you can have your family’s second home. Big benefit: you will not only have a villa with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, but also an annex that has one bedroom and one bathroom which can be rented out to cover your villa’s expenses. You also have the option of having your own private pool.

Value for Money Picture this: in the morning the kids are playing in their rooms while you take your coffee outside to the patio to enjoy the birds singing in the lush greens that surround you. After breakfast you gather your stuff to walk to the residence pools or cross the street to jump into the Caribbean Sea. This is no movie, this is for real. You are in paradise, you own your own villa and you have a decent return-on-investment. Not to be forgotten: you can make use of all facilities and services that are offered by Azure Beach Residences and there is 24-hours security. Best of it all is that the prices are very reasonable, especially when compared to similar offerings in the market.

Upgraded Environment The environment of Azure Beach Residences and the Azure Villas will be improved as the government is extending the Linear Park, a lovely paved route that eventually connects the length of the island’s west coast from the Airport to Arashi Beach. The trail is lined with trees for shade and offers secure space for walkers, runners and cyclers. All together you will be assured to have your perfect picture here.

Are you curious? Azure Beach Residences welcomes you to step in and hear more about this great opportunity! Hear us out and see for yourself.q

WINNING POINTS • Closed gated community with all amenities Azure Beach Residences has to offer

• Spacious villa with lots of light coming in and full privacy PLUS the annex can be rented out

• Your backyard is the Bubali Bird Sanctuary and the white-

sand Eagle Beach on the opposite side of the street • New walk-run-cycle trail and park right by the front of the property • Well-priced in comparison with equally sized offerings • Developer with a trustworthy image and proven track record of success For more information you can visit the website http:// www. azure-aruba.com. The sales office is open every week day from 9 AM -5 PM, Saturdays 10 AM - 1 PM.

A17

Thursday 3 October 2019

Koepka has work done on left knee in offseason LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brooks Koepka spent the majority of his short offseason recovering from stem cell treatment on his left knee.

Koepka returns to competition this week in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, giving Las Vegas the No. 1 player in the world for the first time since Greg Norman in 1988 when the tournament was played in the spring.

He said after his pro-am round Wednesday that he had the stem cell treatment on his patella on Aug. 25, the day after the PGA Tour season ended at the Tour Championship.

He said he was limping for a few days because the treatment was painful, but he was excited about finally feeling whole.

The treatment followed a year in which Koepka won three times, including the PGA Championship for his fourth major and his first World Golf Championships title.

“My knee was bugging me from about March on,” Koepka said, adding that the final four months were a “struggle.”

That makes him the third player from the top 10 in the world to have work done on his knee during the offseason, joining Dustin Johnson and Tiger Woods. None was too serious, as Woods plans to return in three weeks at the new tournament in Japan.

Johnson is likely to return at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas the first week of December, followed by the Presidents Cup in Australia.

Koepka never talked about injury during the season.

Continued on Page 21

NATIONAL SAVING PLAN

Juan Soto RBI leads Nationals over Brewers in wild card Washington Nationals left fielder Juan Soto (22) can't field a ball hit by Milwaukee Brewers' Eric Thames during the fourth inning of a National League wild card baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the Milwaukee Brewers at Nationals Park, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, in Washington.

Associated Press Page 19

A18 SPORTS

Thursday 3 October 2019

Sprinter wins for Britain and college star takes hurdles

Dina Asher-Smith, of Great Britain, runs in the women's 200 meter finals at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Most of the prime contenders in the women’s 200 had dropped out before the race even began. In the men’s 110 hurdles, the favorites waited to start tumbling until they neared the finish line.

Two gold medals. Two ways to win them.

Dina Asher-Smith took the easier road Wednesday to become Britain’s first female sprint world champion, while Grant Holloway outran the demolition derby to his left to become only the sixth man to capture NCAA and world titles in the same year.

“Those barriers don’t care about your body,” Holloway said. “They’re there to slow you down. Our goal is to go full-fledged over all 10 of them.”

Some of the biggest hurdles facing Asher-Smith on her quest to make history in her home country had disappeared before her race even began. The 200 field was missing 100 champion

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (tired), two-time defending champion Dafne Schippers (injured), Olympic titlist Elaine Thompson (injured), and the 2019 world leader, Shaunae Miller-Uibo (running the 400), just to name a few.

When the eight-woman final was finally set, AsherSmith found herself listed as a 1-10 favorite at some of the sports books back home, where they always pay close attention to their track stars.

All of which made this feel like anything but a breeze.

“Normally I’m quite chatty and full of energy, but it’s a different thing with everyone saying you’re the favorite,” she said. “You’re only the favorite if you go out and perform how people expect you to.”

Using her trademark fast start, Asher-Smith blasted out of the blocks in Lane 7 and was moving past the outside runners and into a three-step lead at the 150-meter mark. The rest

was just a matter of time.

Asher-Smith’s 21.88 _ good for a .34-second margin over America’s Brittany Brown _ established a British national record, just as her 10.83 did three nights earlier in the 100, when she finished second to FraserPryce.

Asher-Smith joined Linford Christie (1993) as only the second British runner to win a sprint at world championships.

How big a deal was this?

Well, it actually got loud for a minute after AsherSmith crossed the finish line at the half-full Khalifa International Stadium. A few pockets in the British contingent waved the Union Jack, clanged cowbells and went crazy in the airconditioned venue that had sounded more like a library only minutes before, while Poland’s Pawel Fajdek was wrapping up his fourth straight world hammer throw gold.

It will certainly be louder a year from now at the Tokyo

Olympics, where expectations will be higher, and the field will almost certainly be deeper. Asher-Smith is already looking ahead.

“Still getting stronger, still learning a lot more physically and mentally,” she said. “So, hopefully, there’s a lot more to come.”

If Asher-Smith’s race was expected, then Holloway’s victory was ... NASCAR? While Holloway was in Lane 6 vying for the lead with Sergey Shubenkov, defending champion Omar McLeod was barreling down Lane 4 with his necklace in his mouth, racing next to 2016 Olympic silver medalist Orlando Ortega.

McLeod clipped the eighth barrier, then the ninth, then completely bit it after the 10th. But as he was warbling, his arm flailed in front of Ortega, who was closing in Lane 5, and slowed down the Spaniard’s late charge to keep him out of the medals.

Early on Thursday morning, Spain filed an appeal, ask-

ing for a re-run of the race, or for Ortega to be allowed to compete alone to see where his time would place him _ or for him to receive a bronze medal.

A few hours later, the jury said Ortega had been impeded but denied the appeal nonetheless. The essence of their reasoning: Hurdles is a contact sport.

“I feel very, very sorry for Ortega, because he could’ve won a medal,” McLeod said. “But that’s life.”

And life couldn’t be much better for Holloway, who looked semi-shocked when he crossed the line ahead of Shubenkov, then did what any good University of Florida athlete would do: the Gator chomp.

Holloway joined, among others, triple jumper Christian Taylor and 400-meter Olympic champion Kirani James as winners of the NCAA-worlds double.

None had been in a race like this.

“I didn’t see it but I heard a lot of them _ bang, boom, boom,” bronze medalist Pascal Martinot-Lagarde said. “I just stayed on my line and ran my race.”

So did Holloway, who still had the American flag draped around his neck two hours after the race.

He was a two-sport star in high school, and could’ve just as easily have played football as run track.

“My coaches broke it down to me very simply: ‘Do you want to be in the NFL or do you want to be an Olympian?’ My heart was being an Olympian,” Holloway said.

Chances are, he will be. As of Wednesday, he’s a track and field world champion _ even if the race that made him one looked more like a football game.q

SPORTS A19

Thursday 3 October 2019

Soto lifts Nats to 4-3 comeback wild-card win over Brewers

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Sports Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — After all the heartache and close calls, all the early exits, maybe it makes sense that a 20-year-old kid who never had been to the postseason, Juan Soto, would help the Washington Nationals finally advance.

And maybe, just maybe, it makes sense that it would be this particular edition of the Nationals, a club that went from 12 games under .500 in May to playoff participant, that demonstrated the necessary never-give-up fortitude when things looked bleak.

Soto delivered a basesloaded single against Milwaukee closer Josh Hader that scored three runs with two outs in the eighth inning, thanks in part to an error by rookie outfielder Trent Grisham, and the Nationals came back to beat the Brewers 4-3 in the NL wild-card game Tuesday night.

"We started off horrible, as we all know, and we vowed that we wouldn't quit," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said, talking about the year as a whole but sounding like he could have meant this particular evening. "I told the boys, 'I promise you, stay with it, don't quit, this will turn around.' And it did. And here we are today."

The Nationals carry a ninegame winning streak into their best-of-five NL Division Series against the leaguebest Dodgers.

Game 1 is Thursday in Los Angeles, and some in the sellout crowd of 42,993

Members of the Washington Nationals celebrate after winning a National League wild-card baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, in Washington. Washington won 4-3.

Associated Press

chanted "Beat LA! Beat LA!" as members of the Nationals began their celebration on the infield with family members.

That included Soto's father leaping onto his back and tackling him amid the excitement.

The Nationals, who moved to Washington from Montreal before the 2005 season, had been 0-3 in winner-take-all postseason games — all NLDS Game 5 losses at home, by a grand total of four runs. Indeed, eight of their past nine playoff losses had been by one run apiece.

This time, it went the other way.

"We've been here a bunch of times. Never kind of broke through," said Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals' first draft pick back in 2005,

so someone who has been through all the disappointment. "Finally caught a break tonight."

It was Zimmerman's brokenbat bloop single as a pinch hitter that helped load the bases in the eighth off Hader, who took the loss.

Hader hit another pinch hitter, Michael A. Taylor, a ruling that stood up when the Brewers challenged, according to Major League Baseball, because there wasn't "clear and convincing evidence to overturn the call."

Said Hader: "Definitely looked like it got the bat, but it also got his hand."

Hader, who had 37 saves this season, also walked Anthony Rendon, filling the bags and bringing Soto to the plate.

What was Soto thinking

right then?

"Just get a base hit up the middle," he said, "and try to help to tie the game."

The runner-up for 2018 NL Rookie of the Year did more than that. Soto ripped a 96 mph fastball to right, and the ball skipped under Grisham's glove for an error.

That allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate and Soto to get to second, then turn for third.

"Right guy, right spot," winning pitcher Stephen Strasburg said about Soto.

Eventually, Soto was caught in a rundown to end the inning, but that didn't matter: He had turned a 3-1 deficit into a lead, and so he clapped his hands, then pounded his chest and high-fived third base coach Bob Henley, before shouting "Let's go!" and its

Spanish equivalent, "Vamonos!"

"The inning was an ugly inning," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "Crazy things happen."

Grisham, who has appeared in only 51 games in the majors and took over in right after reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich was lost for the season three weeks ago with a broken kneecap, said the ball "came in with a little topspin, took a funny hop."

His teammates tried to console a tearful Grisham with a series of hugs in the clubhouse afterward.

"It's going to sting," he said.

After Max Scherzer fell behind 3-0 by giving up homers to Yasmani Grandal in the first and Eric Thames in the second, Strasburg replaced him in the sixth and threw three scoreless innings to earn the win in the first relief appearance of his major league career, regular season or playoffs.

Daniel Hudson pitched the ninth for the save, getting Ben Gamel to fly out to the warning track in center with a man on to end it.

"Hats off for us to for continuing to fight, because we know if we could keep it close we could have a chance at the end," said Trea Turner, who got Washington within 3-1 with a solo shot off Brandon Woodruff in the third.

It wasn't until the eighth, though, that the Nationals would push more runs across. Just the sort of dramatic turnaround they pulled off this season, going from 19-31 in May to playoff team.q

A20 SPORTS

Thursday 3 October 2019

Callahan's move to TV may be model for other injured players

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer Ryan Callahan figured he would visit a specialist and learn how to fix the back issues that plagued him last season.

Instead, two doctor visits brought the diagnosis of degenerative disk disease and the end of his playing career. Once Callahan came to grips with that, he decided he would like to go into management or broadcasting.

There was one problem: Callahan had one year left on his contract and can't work for a team until it expires next summer. So the 34-year-old signed on to be an NHL Network analyst this season, possibly creating a road map for other players to follow if injuries cut short their on-ice careers.

"Just to stay busy and stay in the game is the biggest thing," Callahan said. "To go from 100 to 0 just like that, it would be tough to

In this Feb. 2, 2019, file photo, Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Ryan Callahan (24) controls the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Associated Press

do mentally. So, for Ottawa to give me permission to do this, I'm thankful for that and thankful for the NHL for wanting me to do it, as well."

Callahan played a combined 878 regular-season and playoff games with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning but

had his contract traded to the Ottawa Senators for salary-cap reasons. It's similar to situations with injured players Chris Pronger, David Clarkson, Marc Savard, Mikhail Grabovski, Ryane Clowe and Dave Bolland, whose contracts were moved around the league after they hung up their

skates for good.

When he steps on set for the first time on Oct. 16, Callahan figures to have a harder time compartmentalizing what's going on with the Lightning than his new "teammates" in Ottawa.

"I don't know anybody in (the Senators) organization; I've never played for that team," Callahan said.

"I think what'll be more weird is analyzing Tampa Bay's games just because I know that organization so well and I'm good friends with a lot of the players on the team still."

Callahan chose to stay in hockey without ruffling any feathers. It hasn't always been so simple for players whose careers are cut short by injury but move on quickly to other jobs.

The NHL took some criticism for hiring Pronger in the department of player safety in 2014 with three years remaining on his contract,

and the menacing defenseman was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame before it was over. Pronger joined the hockey operations staff for the Florida Panthers once he was no longer under contract.

Savard moved into coaching this year as an assistant with the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues. Clowe spent two seasons as a New Jersey Devils assistant and had a short stint as an ECHL coach, and Clarkson is coaching a high school team.

Coaching is not in Callahan's plans, which made broadcasting the logical step.

"I didn't like that side of the game," he said. "It was more behind the scenes things that I wanted to learn more of. Obviously I've never done it before.

I don't know if I would enjoy it or not enjoy it, but it's something that I wanted to learn more of. q

SPORTS A21 Jets QB Darnold practicing, still not cleared for contact Thursday 3 October 2019

By DENNIS WASZAK Jr. AP Pro Football Writer FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Sam Darnold was back on the field, breaking down the pre-practice huddle and tossing passes while looking as though he hadn’t missed a beat.

The New York Jets and their quarterback still need to wait before they know if he can play in a game.

Darnold practiced Wednesday for the first time since being diagnosed with mononucleosis three weeks ago. He still hasn’t been cleared for physical contact or lifting weights, leaving his availability for New York’s game at Philadelphia on Sunday uncertain.

“I like our odds better than what they’ve been,” coach Adam Gase said.

“Last week, if we would have been playing a game, I would have said it was really low. I like the fact that things have looked and progressed in the right direction. ... There’s just some gray there still.”

Darnold was listed as a limited participant at practice, but wide receivers Robby Anderson and Jamison Crowder both gave the quarterback positive reviews.

“He looked good,” Anderson said. “He looked comfortable. To me, I didn't feel Continued from Page 17

He said his knee made it difficult to walk down hills and that it kept him from practicing. He returned to practice a little over a week ago and feels this is the most prepared he has felt going into a tournament in some time.

With all that, he still managed to have the three victories, lead the PGA Tour money list and join Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth as the only players to finish among the top four in every major. Koepka was runner-up at the Masters and U.S. Open.

It just wasn’t good enough to be voted PGA Tour player of the year. That award, a vote of the players, went to Rory McIlroy, whose three victories included

In this Sept. 8, 2019, file photo, New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold (14) makes a pass during an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, in East Rutherford, N.J. Associated Press

like he was away.”

Added Crowder: “He’s been out three or four weeks, but first day back, coming off the bye week, I thought today was really good.” Gase said Darnold will have additional tests Friday and the team will lean on the doctors to determine what the quarterback can do physically. The size of the quarterback’s spleen is being monitored. Swelling of the organ is a common symptom of mononucleosis. Damage to the spleen, including a rupture, is a se-

rious _ and, in some cases, life-threatening _ situation, so the Jets and Darnold are being cautious.

Darnold was wearing a red no-contact jersey during practice, a common sight around NFL camps for quarterbacks. But, Gase doesn’t normally have his QBs wear them.

“No one’s going to touch him today,” Gase said. “I can promise you that.”

Gase acknowledged that the Jets could go as far as Sunday morning before determining whether Darnold

The Players Championship and the Tour Championship, which gave him the FedEx Cup for the second time. McIlroy also won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest adjusted scoring average. Still, even McIlroy was surprised he won.

Koepka shrugged when asked about it Wednesday at the TPC Summerlin.

“I don’t play for awards,” he said. “I play to win tournaments.”

He also used an NBA reference, suggesting everyone knows that LeBron James has been the best in basketball for the last decade or more.

“LeBron has won only four MVPs,” Koepka said. “I’m pretty sure he’s been the best player.”

Koepka said he spent three

or four weeks rehabilitating his left knee and was excited for a new season and fresh legs. He likes the TPC Summerlin and the way the field has shaped up. It is the strongest of the fall with six of the top 20 in the world, a list that features Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Adam Scott, U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau.

Also playing is Phil Mickelson, who missed the cut last week in the Safeway Open. Mickelson last played Las Vegas in 2005.

Koepka last played Las Vegas in 2017, finishing two shots behind Rod Pampling. He first played in 2014, his first full season on the PGA Tour. At the time, he had played only regular

will play against the Eagles or Luke Falk will make his second straight start. Falk will also get snaps during team drills this week.

“You’ve got to get the physical reps after practice with the guys and you’ve got to be locked in mentally when (Darnold) is getting his reps with the 1s,” Falk said. “You’ve got to be ready to roll.”

The team’s only other healthy quarterback is Mike White, who was signed to the practice squad last week.

“Ideally, it would be nice to say, this is what we’re doing,” Gase said. “That’s just not the situation. We’ve just got to keep talking to the doctors every day, keep talking with him and we have to be prepared to go either way.”

Gase spoke to the media before practice, so he was uncertain at that point as to how Darnold would look during practice _ or how much work the quarterback would get.

“I just don’t know how it’s going to go,” Gase said.

“We could go out there and plans could change.

He could take every rep. It could go either way.”

The 22-year-old Darnold was diagnosed with mononucleosis on Sept. 11 and has missed two games because of the illness. He recently acknowledged he felt a bit under the weather _ a sign the symptoms were beginning to affect him _ in the season-opening loss to Buffalo on Sept. 8.

Darnold went 28 of 41 for 175 yards and a touchdown against the Bills, but wasn’t as sharp as he had been throughout training camp and the preseason.

The quarterback spoke Monday about not being concerned about his conditioning if he’s cleared to play, but more on his throwing and timing. q

In this May 19, 2019, file photo, Brooks Koepka poses with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament, in Farmingdale, N.Y. Associated Press

PGA Tour events and was three months away from winning his first one.

“At that time, I was trying to win, but it was trying to compete,” he said. “Now it’s just go out and win,

and win as many times as I can. I enjoy it. I enjoy the competition. I want to be the best. Everybody is in the rearview mirror. I’ve just got to figure out how to consistently stay on top.”q

A22 SPORTS

Thursday 3 October 2019

China Open Andy Murray, Bianca Andreescu win BEIJING (AP) — Andy Murray won consecutive singles matches for the first time since undergoing hip surgery in January while U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu won her 15th in a row at the China Open on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old Murray beat British countryman Cameron Norrie 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-1 to make the singles quarterfinals at a tournament for the first time in 12 months.

Murray will face either topseeded Dominic Thiem or Chinese wild-card entry Zhang Zhizhen on Friday.

After splitting the first two sets on tiebreakers, former top-ranked Murray pulled away in the third, winning 77% of first serve points to improve to 4-0 against Norrie.

"I decided like, if I want to win, I have to go and take

In this photo provided by Luna Rossa Challenge, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli is launched on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, in the Cagliari shipyard on the Isle of Sardinia in Italy.

Associated Press

Andy Murray of Britain hits a return shot against his compatriot Cameron Norrie during their second round of the men's singles match in the China Open tennis tournament at the Diamond Court in Beijing, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

risks and come to the net, try and finish the points quicker, which I did. I did that well at the end," Murray said.

Also Wednesday, fourthseeded Karen Khachanov beat Jeremy Chardy, and

eighth-seeded Fabio Fognini beat Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4.

In the women's tournament, No. 6-ranked Andreescu beat Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 7-6 (5) in a second-round match. q

Japan Open Djokovic beats Soeda to reach quarterfinals

By JIM ARMSTRONG AP Sports Writer TOKYO (AP) — Coming off an injury, Novak Djokovic is confident his game is going in the right direction.

Djokovic needed only two sets and 95 minutes to defeat Japanese wild-card entry Go Soeda 6-3, 7-5 and reach the quarterfinals of the Japan Open on Wednesday.

Top-ranked Djokovic, who is attempting to win a title on his tournament debut for the 10th time, hit 10 aces and saved three of four break points.

Djokovic retired with a left-shoulder injury during his fourth-round match against Stan Wawrinka at the U.S. Open but showed no lingering effects in Tokyo.

In his first competitive match since facing Wawrinka, Djokovic was knocked out

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns a backhand shot to Go Soeda of Japan during a second round of Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

of the doubles with Filip Krajinovic on Monday but beat Alexei Popyrin in the first round of the singles on Tuesday.

After three matches in three days, Djokovic said he's pleased with his progress.

"I probably played even

on a higher level than the first round," Djokovic said.

"So the game is going in the right direction, that's for sure. I've played three games in a row, the doubles on Monday then two straight singles matches back-to-back, so everything is fine."q

Italy launches Luna Rossa America’s Cup challenger

By JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer There’s another boat on the water going after the America’s Cup. The Luna Rossa, Italy’s challenger for sailing’s most prestigious prize, was christened Wednesday in Cagliari on the Isle of Sardinia.

The Circolo della Vela Sicilia yacht club is the third to launch, joining Emirates Team New Zealand and the New York Yacht Club's American Magic.

After Monsignor Arrigo Miglio, the archbishop of Cagliari, blessed the boat and sprinkled it with holy water, fashion scion Miuccia Prada smashed a bottle of Ferrari Maximum Blanc de Blancs over the ship’s bow, setting off a cacophony of horns and cheering.

“Always launching a new boat, it is exciting,” Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera said. “It’s the beginning of a new adventure in race, a new era in sailing.”

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte visited with the crew and team members at the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli headquarters.

The Italian team, which helped fund the winning New Zealand team in 2017, pushed for a return to monohulls for the 2021 America's Cup, to be held in Auckland. Along with the Kiwis, they came up with a 75-foot foiling monohull. The foiling technology shared by the AC75 yachts

allows them to sail at more than 50 knots (57 mph, 92 kph) with the hull out of the water, riding on foils.

“These new boats, our emotions are excitement,” Provera said in a telephone interview. “Shapes, lines, foils _ everything makes it quite unique. I think these new boats will design a new era in the America’s Cup. It will start a new story.” The Luna Rossa sports a sleek black hull, with a red stripe for sponsor Prada and a tricolor Italian flag.

The 500 kg (1,100 pound) carbon fiber foil arms that figure to be visible out of the water when the racing is at its most intense are painted yellow and red for Pirelli, which is better known in the sporting world as the lone tire manufacturer for Formula One race cars.

“We can’t wait to get acquainted with the AC75,” said Max Sirena, skipper and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team director. “(The) boat will sail almost entirely in foiling mode: The hull will barely touch the water, allowing us to reach very high speeds.”

New Zealand last month launched the first of two boats it will use to defend the Cup against challengers from the United States, Britain and Italy on Auckland's Waitemata Harbor in March 2021. The U.S. entry followed, and the British are expected to follow this week.q

SPORTS A23

Thursday 3 October 2019

Scott Dixon, of New Zealand, sits in his car during the Aeroscreen testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, in Indianapolis.

Associated Press

IndyCar aeroscreen declared ready to race

by Dixon and Power

By JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer Scott Dixon and Will Power both declared IndyCar’s new aeroscreen “ready to race” during the first extensive test session for the cockpit protection that will debut next season.

“It’s like a road car,” Dixon said. “It’s just very quiet. I can hear my radio, usually I can’t hear that. I can hear the engine. The protection is there. It would be very strange taking it off now.”

The aeroscreen developed

by Red Bull Advanced Technologies virtually covers the open-air cockpit with a clear screen anchored by and on a titanium framework. Its purpose is to protect drivers from flying debris.

Dixon has been the most involved driver in the development of the aeroscreen and he tested a prototype on a simulator in July at the Dallara Research Center in Indiana. He joined Power on Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the duo had logged over 600 miles before a break to discuss the progress.

“When you have driven it for a day, you will fill naked without it, because there’s so much protection there,” Power said. “I am so happy that we have it, it really is a huge step in safety. It is the best of both worlds in that you have a halo and a screen.”

IndyCar has been working on improved cockpit safety since 2011 when Dan Wheldon died from a head injury suffered when his car sailed into a fence at Las Vegas. The exposed cockpit left Wheldon’s head vulnerable will the car hit the fencing. Four years later, Justin Wilson was killed when a piece of debris from a crash ahead of him bounced off his helmet during a 2015 race at Pocono.

IndyCar has tested various windscreen concepts, including one by PPG Aerospace that drivers used in tests last year. Although the drivers who tested the windscreen did not report any issues, comprehensive testing at PPG’s facility in Alabama showed more work was needed. IndyCar was able to take that research to give Red Bull additional information for development of the current design.

In May, IndyCar introduced a debris deflector mounted at the front of the cockpit.

The 3-inch titanium deflector was a temporary solution for this season as Red Bull finished its aeroscreen.

The Red Bull design is a polycarbonate laminated screen with anti-reflective coating on the interior and an anti-fogging device through a heating element. The titanium frame will be mounted in three areas.q

In this Sept. 6, 2019, file photo, United States defender Sergino Dest looks to pass the ball during an international friendly soccer match against the Mexico, in East Rutherford, N.J. Associated Press

Dest not on U.S. roster, keeping open Dutch switch possibility

By RONALD BLUM NEW YORK (AP) — Defender Sergiño Dest was left off the U.S. roster for CONCACAF Nations League matches against Cuba and Canada, a decision that keeps open his option to switch allegiance from the Americans to the Netherlands.

The 18-year-old made his U.S. debut at left back in an exhibition against Mexico on Sept. 6 after playing for the Americans at the 2017 Under-17 World Cup and this year's Under-20 World Cup. The son of a Surinamese-American father and Dutch mother, Dest has become a regular this season at Dutch power Ajax, which reached last year's Champions League final.

Dest said he is being recruited by the Royal Dutch Football Association. If he played in the new Nations League, which is an official competition, he would be tied to the U.S. In a conference call with reporters, U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter declined to detail his conversations with Dest and whether the rest of the American player pool would be affected by Dest’s indecision.

Christian Pulisic, the Americans' 21-year-old star midfielder, was included despite his benching by Chel-

sea. Released early from U.S. camp after the Mexico match, he has appeared just once for Chelsea since then, in the League Cup against Grimsby on Sept.

25. Pulisic did not even dress for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Lille.

“In terms of our team, his status hasn't changed one bit. He's a very important player for our team.

He's a catalyst for our attack,” said Berhalter, who visited Chelsea last week.

“When you look at his situation with Chelsea, it's not uncommon for a player to take some time to get settled and to adapt. You see a player like Antoine Griezmann at Barcelona is having a difficult time. This happens.”

Brenden Aaronson, an 18-year-old midfielder with Philadelphia, was the only newcomer among 26 players on the roster announced Wednesday.

“We want to see how he reacts, see how he takes in information,” Berhalter said.

Defenders DeAndre Yedlin and Matt Miazga are back on the roster after returning from injury layoffs.

Recovered from groin surgery, Yedlin entered in the 74th minute of Newcastle's

5-0 loss at Leicester on Sunday, his first appearance in a game since April 6.

Miazga hurt a hamstring while playing for Reading on Aug. 24 and returned to start in the League Cup against Wolverhampton on Sept. 25, although he did not play in the Royals' last two league matches.

Midfielders Tyler Adams (groin) and Tim Weah (hamstring) remain sidelined.

Toronto midfielder Michael Bradley and forward Jozy Altidore return after missing last month's matches to remain with their club.

The U.S. plays Cuba on Oct. 11 at Washington, D.C., then meets Canada four days later in Toronto in Berhalter’s first road match after 14 home games. The Americans host Canada on Nov. 15 at Orlando, Florida, and play Cuba four days after at George Town, Cayman Islands.

The group winner advances to the Nations League semifinals in June. Canada hopes victories will help it move into the top six among CONCACAF nations in the FIFA rankings, which would earn a berth in the hexagonal, which will produce three qualifiers from the region for the 2022 World Cup.q

A24 TECHNOLOGY

Thursday 3 October 2019

Ready student one? Universities launch degrees in esports LONDON (AP) — On their first week in class, a group of students is playing a first-person shooter video game in a sleek new digital studio. It's their introduction to the degree in esports they've all enrolled in.

The group clicking away on their mice are at the University of Staffordshire, one of several U.K. and U.S. schools launching programs aimed at capitalizing on the booming industry's need for skilled professionals.

Ryan Chapman, 18, said his parents were "skeptical at first" about studying esports, or competitive multiplayer videogaming.

"But now they understand how big the industry is growing, the pace it's growing at. They're now really all for it because it's a great industry to start to get into," said Chapman, who was among the students in the lab playing Counter-Strike, one of the most popular esports games.

The University of Staffordshire last year launched its bachelor's and master's esports programs, in which students mainly learn marketing and management skills tailored to the industry.

In this photo taken on Sept. 17, 2019, Ryan Chapman and other students starting Staffordshire University’s esports degree course play “Counter-Strike” in the school’s new London digital studio.

Associated Press

This autumn, it's expanding the program to London while other schools are also debuting esports degree courses, including Britain's Chichester University, Virginia's Shenandoah University, Becker College in Massachusetts and The Ohio State University. In Asia, where esports has seen strong growth, schools in

Singapore and China offer courses.

The global esports market is expected to surge to $1.1 billion this year, up $230 million from 2018 on growth in sponsorships, merchandise and ticket sales, according to Newzoo . The research firm expects the global esports audience to grow in 2019 to about 454 million as

fans tune in on livestreaming platforms such as Twitch and Microsoft's Mixer.

Esports tournaments have become a cultural phenomenon and now rival traditional sports events in size and scale. Big competitions are held in arenas where thousands of fans watch big-name professional video gamers com-

pete for lucrative prize pools.

Esports leagues have franchises in North America, Europe and Asia. The biggest names, such as Fortnite superstar Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, can earn millions in prize money and livestreaming deals. Esports are even set to be a medal event at the Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines in November.

Dozens of U.S. colleges have offered varsity level esports competitions for years. But some schools are taking it a step further by adding courses as the industry's boom drives demand for professionals who know how to, for example, organize esports tournaments.

New niche degrees partly highlight the changing economy, but they also reflect the "need to communicate to parents and students that there will be a job waiting for someone once they earn a degree," which may include hefty tuition fees and student loans to pay for them, said Joni Finney, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research on Higher Education.q

Microsoft returns with smartphone after high-profile flops

By ANICK JESDANUN NEW YORK (AP) — After high-profile flops, Microsoft is getting back into smartphones with a dual-screen Android device that won’t be out for another year.

Microsoft unveiled the Surface Duo as part of a new lineup of Surface computers. It marks a reversal for a company that abandoned smartphones following lackluster demand for its own operating system and an ill-fated purchase of smartphone maker Nokia.

“I believe the third time's a charm for Microsoft and smartphones,” said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with moor Insights & Strategy.

He said Microsoft has had a good track record with Surface devices, while the Duo’s novel design offers something new at a time when phone innovation

Microsoft's Chief Product Officer Panos Panay holds a Surface Duo at an event, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 in New York.

Associated Press

has been slowing down.

Microsoft says the Duo makes phone calls, though it stopped short of calling it a phone. Though it runs Android, the back of the prototype has a Surface logo that resembles Windows.

The company prefers call-

ing the Duo just another Surface device.

Microsoft also announced a dual-screen Surface Neo tablet, which also won’t be out until late next year.

In a blog post, Microsoft said other manufacturers including Asus, Dell, HP

and Lenovo will also make dual-screen and foldable devices using a variant of Windows called 10X. Both Surface devices feature two screens connected with a hinge and can fold like laptops. They can display separate apps side by side or a single app stretched across both screens. They are technologically less ambitious than foldable phones from Samsung and others, whose screens actually bend as the devices close. Some of those folding phones have experienced technical difficulties.

The Duo is about the size of a large smartphone when folded, with two 5.6-inch displays, while the folded Neo is similar in size to a small tablet such as the iPad Mini or an Amazon Fire.

The devices will initially be available only for developers who create and test apps. Microsoft plans to start selling them during the 2020 holiday season. The company offered no details on price.

Available sooner are $249 Surface Earbuds, as Microsoft joins Apple, Amazon, Google and others in making wireless listening devices.

At a product event Wednesday in New York, Microsoft also unveiled two new Surface Pro tablets.

The Surface Pro X will have a 13-inch screen, rather than the 12-inch ones on the new Pro 7 and older models. But the X will be about the same size overall, thanks to a smaller bezel.

The company also unveiled a refreshed laptop.q

BUSINESS A25

Thursday 3 October 2019

AP source: UAW rejects GM offer over pay, temporary workers

European Commissioner designate for Jobs Nicolas Schmit sits prior his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.

Associated Press

EU jobs chief nominee: no plan for common minimum wage

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The official set to become the European Union's employment chief has no plan to create a minimum wage that would apply in every country of the 28-nation bloc.

Laying out his priorities during a hearing by European lawmakers, Nicolas Schmit said Tuesday he will fight for the implementation of minimum standards aimed at tackling revenue disparities across the EU, but insisted minimum wages can't be the same everywhere.

Schmit, who has been picked to take on the jobs portfolio in the next European Commission scheduled to take office on Nov. 1, said "by no means" he

wants to create "a European frame for minimum wages."

According to the Eurostat agency, 22 out of the 28 member states had national gross minimum wages as of January 2019, ranging from 286 euros ($311) in Bulgaria to 2,071 euros ($2,255) in Luxembourg.

Monthly minimum wages are generally below 600 euros ($653) in eastern countries and above 1,400 euros ($1,524) in the northwestern nations.

Schmit also gave guarantees to well-off countries including Sweden or Denmark with no minimum wage scheme that they would not be forced into changing their model based on collective bargaining.q

By TOM KRISHER DETROIT (AP) — General Motors offered striking union members wage increases or lump-sum payments in all four years of a proposed contract, as bargainers seek a deal to end a walkout that’s in its third week.

But union bargainers rejected the offer because it took money from other places to fund profit-sharing, and it didn’t give temporary workers a clear path to a full-time job, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

Still, the offer, made late Monday, is likely to be the framework for whatever agreement is reached to end the strike by 49,000 workers that has halted production in the U.S. and severely cut output in Mexico and Canada. Both sides were still talking Wednesday.

“It’s not insulting,” Art Wheaton, an auto industry expert at the Worker Institute at Cornell University, said of the offer. “It’s not close enough to ideal, but they’re still talking.”

After GM presented the offer, bargainers for the United Auto Workers union made a counter offer that is now the subject of bargaining, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because details of the talks are private.

But another person briefed

In this Sept. 30, 2019, file photo a UAW flag flies near strikers outside the General Motors Orion Assembly plant in Orion Township, Mich.

Associated Press

on the talks said much of what the union objected to, including proposed concessions, has been removed or is being bargained. That person said health care, a key sticking point with union members, would remain the same as it is now. The person, who also didn’t want to be identified because the talks are confidential, did not know the status of other provisions that were being discussed Wednesday.

Among the union’s big problems with the Monday offer is a provision requiring temporary workers to be employed for three uninterrupted years before they automatically become fulltime. It’s unlikely the workers would not be laid off in three years, making it almost impossible to reach

full-time status, the person said. Full-time workers on the picket lines say they want to see temporary workers get permanent jobs.

For workers who were hired before 2007, the Monday night offer includes 2% raises in 2020 and 2022, as well as a 2% lump sum payment in 2019 and 3% in 2021.

Workers also would get an $8,000 ratification bonus, and a cap would be lifted on profit-sharing.

Full-time workers hired after 2007, who now are paid less than older workers, would get the same profit-sharing and ratification bonuses. But they wouldn’t get pay raises other than the steps on the pay scale negotiated in the last contract, the first person said of the Monday night offer. q

A26 COMICS

Thursday 3 October 2019

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Yesterday’s puzzle answer

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

CLASSIFIED A27

Thursday 3 October 2019

Food rewards: Way to a dog's heart IS through its stomach

By LINDA LOMBARDI Associated Press Why train your dog with food rewards? A growing body of research says it's the easiest and most effective way to train.

"Using treats during training is the best way to guarantee that your dog will repeat the behavior you want," says the American Kennel Club.

Other methods don't work as well, experts say, and can even harm your dog and the pet-owner relationship.

Erica Feuerbacher, an assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science at Virginia Tech, did a study that compared a food reward to the reward of petting and praise. Dogs were clear about what they preferred: "They'll work harder and respond faster for food than for social interaction," she says.

Dogs do love to be with us, but our monkey chatter doesn't mean that much to them: Feuerbacher has found that dogs will stay near a person who's praising them for the same amount of time as if they're being ignored.

And if you want your dog to obey just because they love you, get real.

"If only it was like that!" says Zazie Todd, author of the forthcoming "Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy" (Greystone Books, 2020). "If your boss stopped paying you, you'd probably stop going to work

pretty quickly. You need to motivate your dog too."

Dog trainers also talk about "life rewards" like getting to play or go for a walk. These can be useful, especially to maintain behaviors you've already trained, but are more complicated and take longer.

"For most everyday behaviors that ordinary people want to teach, food is quicker and easier," says Todd.

"You want to find a trainer who's using modern reward-based methods, and that means they'll be using food to train a dog," she says.

Consider the alternatives that don't involve rewards.

Punishment also works to change behavior. After all, in nature, animals that don't avoid painful experiences aren't going to live

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Associated Press

long. However, research has shown that using punishment in dog training has serious side effects. "The risks include fear, anxiety and stress," says Todd, "and they include an increased risk of aggression, because the dog may react badly to punishment or the threat of punishment."

It also affects the humananimal bond. One study found that dogs trained with aversive methods looked at their owners

less frequently than dogs trained with positive reinforcement. q

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A28 SCIENCE

Thursday 3 October 2019

Gene editing video stirs talk of designer babies, ethics

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Chief Medical Writer A new video showing people casually discussing gene editing and designer babies is making waves because of its source: the government-funded group leading efforts to set standards for the ethically dicey science.

The National Academy of Sciences posted the video earlier this week along with a tweet it later removed.

The tweet read: "Dream of being stronger? Or smarter? Do you dream of having a top student or star athlete? Or a child free of inheritable #diseases?

Can human #GeneEditing eventually make this and more possible? #TheScienceBehindIt Take the quiz !” It included emojis of a brain, bulging muscles, a professor and an athlete.

“I am disappointed by this,” said Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin, Madison ethicist involved in past academy panels on gene editing. She said the tweet

This Monday, Sept. 30, 2019 image shows a tweet posted by the National Academy of Sciences reading, "Dream of being stronger? Or smarter? Do you dream of having a top student or star athlete? Or a child free of inheritable #diseases? Can human #GeneEditing eventually make this and more possible? #TheScienceBehindIt Take the quiz!” with a link to a video.

Associated Press

and video could further misunderstanding about editing’s most important uses or wrongly suggest that it’s possible now to bestow traits like intelligence.

The video gives the inaccurate impression that gene

editing can give positive traits without any potential downsides _ “the definition of hubris,” said Harvard Medical School dean Dr. George Q. Daley, who also has been involved in academy work. “We are not

there yet.”

Making designer babies has long been feared by opponents of gene editing that alters DNA in embryos, eggs or sperm, in part because such changes can pass to future generations.

Last year, a Chinese researcher's claim to have done this in twin girls was widely denounced and led to new calls for oversight.

The academy and the World Health Organization separately formed scientific panels to consider that.

The new video is part of a series aimed at improving public understanding of the science behind complex issues, said academy spokeswoman Molly Galvin. The tweet was replaced by one noting the academy’s position that gene editing should only be done to treat or prevent disease.

She did not respond to requests for more information, such as whether public money paid for the video.

The academy is a private

group Congress created to advise the federal government, and about 85% of its funding comes from there.

The video includes a clip of gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, discussing the science.

The video opens with people putting notes on a diagram of a body while saying "I guess I would like to be taller," "I would like to change body fat," "let's prevent baldness" and "take away dyslexia."

The script says: "This type of gene editing is still in the realm of science fiction.

But it might not always be."

It says five “everyday people” were asked to consider pros and cons.

One man says, "create the perfect human being ... that's pretty cool," while others shake their heads and say no. "You want the best qualities to be put into your offspring," one man says. "I want my child to be the best version of not just me but him or her. q

NASA lander captures marsquakes, other Martian sounds

This April 25, 2019 photo made available by NASA shows the InSight lander's dome-covered seismometer, known as SEIS, on Mars. On Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, scientists released an audio sampling of marsquakes and other sounds recorded by the probe.

Associated Press

By MARCIA DUNN CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's InSight lander on Mars has captured the low rumble of marsquakes and a symphony of other otherworldly sounds.

Scientists released an audio sampling Tuesday.

The sounds had to be enhanced for humans to hear.

InSight's seismometer has detected more than 100 events, but only 21 are considered strong marsquake candidates. The rest could be marsquakes — or something else. The French seismometer is so sensitive it can hear the Martian wind

as well as movements by the lander's robot arm and other mechanical "dinks and donks " as the team calls them.

"It's been exciting, especially in the beginning, hearing the first vibrations from the lander," said Imperial College London's Constantinos Charalambous, who helped provide the audio recordings. "You're imagining what's really happening on Mars as InSight sits on the open landscape," he added in a statement.

InSight arrived at Mars last November and recorded its first seismic rumbling in April.

A German drilling instrument, meanwhile, has been inactive for months.

Scientists are trying to salvage the experiment to measure the planet's internal temperature.

The so-called mole is meant to penetrate 16 feet (5 meters) beneath the Martian surface, but has managed barely 1 foot (30 centimeters). Researchers suspect the Martian sand isn't providing the necessary friction for digging, causing the mole to helplessly bounce around rather than burrow deeper, and to form a wide pit around itself.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Thursday 3 October 2019

University of Southern California Dean Erica Muhl, from left, Andre "Dr. Dre" Young, Jimmy Iovine and USC President Carol Folt participate in the unveiling of a high-tech building named after Young and Iovine on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Associated Press

Dr. Dre, Iovine unveil high-tech new building at USC Placido Domingo resigns as

In this Aug. 25, 2019, file photo, Placido Domingo talks to fans at the "Festspielhaus" opera house after he performed "Luisa Miller" by Giuseppe Verdi in Salzburg, Austria.

Associated Press

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andre “Dr. Dre” Young and Jimmy Iovine want a new high-tech building bearing their names at the University of Southern California to become a place where young creatives can understand marrying the concepts of art, technology and business.

The music business partners along with USC’s head school officials unveiled the Iovine and Young Hall on the campus during a dedication ceremony on Wednesday afternoon. The school’s marching band commemorated the moment by playing its fight song “Fight On” while confetti exploded into the air after the ribbon cutting.

“What this school does is as much as what it doesn’t do,” said Iovine, a music industry entrepreneur who is known as the co-founder of Interscope Records.

Dr. Dre is best known as a producer, rapper and coowner of Death Row Records. He later started his own record label, Aftermath Entertainment.

“What it doesn’t do is cut off that potential in your freshman year and silos you into something,” Iovine continued. “To silo an undergraduate is a mistake as far as I’m concerned.”

The building was named after Iovine and Dr. Dre who donated a combined $70 million in 2013 to create the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Innovation. The academy provides a special four-year program for undergraduates whose interests are spanned in several fields from marketing, computer science, visual design and other arts.

Iovine believes all of those fields can coincide with each other in their building, which USC President Carol L. Folt called “futuristic.” The hall will provide a learning space featuring 3-D printers, electronic labs, a podcast studio, an alumni incubator space, and a motion capture and audio studio.

“When a design artist meets a computer science major, they don’t understand each other,” Iovine said. “The language gets muddled. They don’t understand the why of what each other does. This school keeps that pumping. When you graduate from this academy, you retain and enhance what you had as a kid. That’s the joy of understanding both disciplines.” Erica Muhl, the dean of the USC Iovine and Young Academy, said the university is evolving with the times.q

general director of LA Opera SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Opera star Placido Domingo resigned Wednesday as general director of the Los Angeles Opera and withdrew from all future performances, following multiple allegations from women who say the legendary tenor sexually harassed them there and at opera companies around the country over a period of decades.

Domingo’s departure from LA Opera raises questions about his future career in the United States, where he has been removed or has stepped down from all scheduled appearances since the allegations were first published last month by The Associated Press.

Domingo said in a statement that his ability to continue at LA Opera was “compromised” by the accusations against him.

“I hold Los Angeles Opera very dearly to my heart and count my work to create and build it as among my most important legacies,” said Domingo, 78, who helped found the company in the 1980s and is credited with raising its international profile.

“However, recent accusations that have been made against me in the press have created an atmosphere in which my ability

to serve this company that I so love has been compromised,” Domingo said, adding that he would continue to work to clear his name but decided “it is in the best interests of LA Opera for me to resign as general director and withdraw from my future scheduled performances at this time.”

Domingo had been scheduled to headline six performances of "Roberto Devereux" in February and March.

The resignation comes a week after the Metropolitan Opera’s bombshell announcement that Domingo would not be taking the stage in the season premiere of “Macbeth” and possibly ever again. Three other companies _ the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Opera and Dallas Opera _ had already removed Domingo from upcoming performances in the wake of AP stories that detailed multiple allegations of harassment and a variety of misconduct alleged by singers, a dancer and backstage opera employees over a period that spanned decades.

In two reports published Aug. 13 and Sept. 5 , the AP spoke to more than 20 women who accused Domingo of sexual harass-

ment or other inappropriate, sexually charged conduct. Many said Domingo tried to pressure them into sexual relationships and sometimes punished them professionally if they rejected him. All said they feared reporting him because of his power to make or break their careers, and that his behavior was an open secret in the opera world.

Domingo has denied any wrongdoing. He has called the claims “in many ways, simply incorrect,” but has not elaborated or addressed any of the accusations directly.

For years, Domingo has been the opera world's most bankable star, with the celebrity power to fill seats in an era of dwindling ticket sales. Over time, he has also widened his portfolio, becoming a prolific conductor and powerful administrator as the general director of two major American companies, first at Washington Opera and later at LA Opera, where he became the artistic director in 2000 and then general director in 2003.

He noted that an independent investigation that LA Opera launched into Domingo’s alleged misconduct would “continue until its resolution.”q

A30 PEOPLE

Thursday 3 October 2019

& ARTS T-Pain relishes in new success following ‘Masked Singer’ win

This June 5, 2019 photo shows rapper T-Pain, host of “T-Pain’s School of Business," posing for a portrait at Gotham Greens in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — T-Pain is not a fan of early mornings, but it’s the price you pay when traveling the country to highlight entrepreneurs and startup companies.

“It’s a lot of non-rapper hours,” the two-time Grammy winner said with a laugh.

The singer-rapper, born Faheem Rasheed Najm, is the host of “T-Pain’s School of Business,” a FUSE show that explores niche, innovative businesses founded by millennials. Many are centered on new technology and forward-thinking concepts.

“It’s great to back these business and get out here and meet the actual entrepreneurs,” he said. “A lot of people that we interview on the show are basically trying to save the environment, coming up with different ways that they can keep the Earth itself sustainable.”

The “rappa-ternt-sanga” (rapper-turned-singer), as he’s labeled himself, said jumping into the business world was a natural fit; his mornings _ or afternoons, depending on when he wakes up _ consist of browsing crowdsourcing apps and helping fund businesses and ideas that catch his eye.

Pain’s career is one that can be envied for its longevity, as many of the artists that he sparred with atop the music charts in the 2000s have faded into obscurity. He has consistently put out music, and he has kept his star bright by keeping his face on television.

He won the inaugural “The Masked Singer” competition in February, followed by hosting the iHeart Music Awards in March. However, he doesn't label it as a comeback.

“I wouldn’t call it resurgence. It’s something I was already doing. I always meet TV producers and I always have meetings at networks and stuff like that and they're like, ‘Man, you got a personality on you,’” he said. “I'm pretty

relatable when it comes to learning about these things because I'm learning with my audience, and if I'm good enough to help people learn and help people start their own business, I'll take it.”

But while he may not call it a revival, he’s much more visible in pop culture than he has been in years. Despite touring and guest appearances, including a high-profile feature on “Finish Line” from Chance The Rapper’s 2016 Grammywinning “Coloring Book” album, Pain hadn’t had a solo song that charted Billboard since 2013. But that changed this year: He dropped a new project in March, “1UP,” and his track “Girlfriend” featuring GEasy peaked at #37.

His music still serves as the sun in which all of his other interests orbit around.

But to some hip-hop fans, it’s a wonder his music still resonates: A decade ago, many predicted his career all but dead after Jay-Z released “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” in 2009, a track urging the hip-hop world to stop using the effect after believing it had become oversaturated in pop culture.

But not only has his career thrived, his influence can be heard in the music of many of today’s popular artists, such as Migos, Future, Travis Scott and Juice Wrld.

“It's definitely come full circle. I'm glad I can have such an influence now,” said the “Buy U A Drank” singer. “I see it in TV, I see it all over the place. I think what I do is infectious enough to go over industries: music industry, the TV industry and everything.

So if I can spread T-Pain as much as possible, then absolutely _ I'm here for it.”

But the biggest irony might be that Beyonce, arguably the world’s biggest music superstar _ and wife to Jay-Z _ used auto-tune on “Ape....,” a track from the couple’s 2018 Grammywinning album, “Everything

Is Love.”

“I felt great. ... It’s hers. I don’t think (Jay-Z) can tell her what to do anyway,” he said with a hefty belly laugh.

T-Pain’s latest album boasts appearances from O.T. Genasis, Russ, Tory Lanez and frequent collaborator, Lil Wayne. He noted that he’s been varied when it comes to his collaborations.

“I've dabbled in country, I've written songs with Luke Bryan. I've done that with Taylor Swift. I've come back to do Pitbull, DJ Khaled and the most gangsta rappers, all the way to Christian pop.” He added: “I don't want there to be a specific sound or anything like that.

You’ll know my voice when you hear it.”

T-Pain recently wrapped up the first half of his “1UP” tour and he’s preparing for the second leg that kicks off in November in Detroit.

But these days, his priorities are different than years ago during the height of his musical success. His family, which includes his wife Amber of 16 years and their three children, Lyriq, Muziq and Kaydnz, is his main focus. “There was a big time in my career when I was chasing fame and chasing being No. 1 and having the best ‘this’ and doing the best ‘that.’ And in the end, none of that’s important if your family is not behind you,” he said. “Just put your family first. It makes a world of difference. Trust me. Big difference.”q

PEOPLE & ARTS A31

Thursday 3 October 2019

Artist Kehinde Wiley on what we can do with offensive art

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — As the nation debates what to do with Old South monuments, one artist has a solution. Kehinde Wiley wants more art.

Wiley, who was tapped to paint Barack Obama for the National Portrait Gallery, thinks monuments to Confederate figures need to be placed in their social context, not torn down.

The artist was in Times Square last week to offer his latest corrective, unveiling a massive bronze statue of a young African American man in urban streetwear sitting astride a galloping horse. Called "Rumors of War," the eight-ton, 29-foothigh work mimics a statue in Richmond, Virginia, of a Confederate general and will be moved there at the end of the year.

Wiley is known for his regal portraits of minorities, which reclaim a privilege long reserved for white aristocrats.

He has explained that his work is a remedy for the historical invisibility of black men and women.

One recent exhibition depicts 15 African Americans from Ferguson, Missouri, and its neighboring communities, dressed in their own clothes but posed like subjects in a classical painting. It is the artist’s memorial to Mike Brown, a young man shot to death by police.

In the shadow of his massive Times Square addition, Wiley told The Associated

Press about his thoughts on Confederate monuments, if he’s become more political and where he goes from here.

Q: There are many people who think Confederate monuments like the ones in Virginia should be ripped down. You're offering another alternative _ more art.

Should art answer art?

A: I believe that when dealing with a troubled past and arguably a beautiful future, artists should use every tool in their wheelhouse. What I try to do is I say yes to certain aspects of history. And I say no to others. What we're saying yes to here is monumentally, romanticism, the love of sculpture, the love affair with the body. This is something that I think is beautiful, but I don't want to necessarily use the negative aspects of America's history as a means through which you view this work. I think promise is the leading edge of this work.

Q: Do you think the Confederate monuments should be taken down? If you do, as an artist, does that put you in a strange position?

A: I’ve never personally asked for any art to be taken down. I actually believe that all art should be seen within its own social context.

There must be a museum for all of the terrible ideas that exist in the world. The only thing that battles a bad idea is a better idea.

Q: Are you getting any

Visual artist Kehinde Wiley, best known for his portrayals of contemporary African-American and African-Diasporic individuals, appears at the unveiling his first monumental public sculpture "Rumors of War," an equestrian portraiture of warfare and heroism, Friday Sept. 27, 2019, in New York.

Associated Press

more political or socially active with your work?

A: It's so interesting. So many people have been wondering what Kehinde Wiley would be making after the Obama portrait. This is my first shot out of the cannon in America and it's no more political than anything I've ever done. What I deal with is history. I deal with Europe and America and colonialism and empire and I try to find new ways of digesting that content, trying to find new ways of looking at ourselves anew. It's not about blackness. It's not about whiteness. It's about the co-evolution of societies and culture and what

you're looking at is us. In full measure.

Q: You keep growing, going from paintings of young men to ones of women, from Americans to people in Indian and Brazil. Where do you want to go?

A: There is no limit. There's no limit to the creative possibility of young people.

There's no limit to the place in which hip-hop has found itself in the bedrooms of young dreamers who want to figure out how they can tell their stories. As long as I have breath in my life, I'm going to dedicate myself to tear up telling those stories.

Q: In your paintings, you

used wallpaper and tapestries to show privilege.

In sculpture, you can’t.

How have you adjusted to three-dimensional works?

A: What I do in my own work here with regards to sculpture is to allow the city to be the backdrop, to allow a moving and constantly changing America to be the context in which we see this young man riding a massive horse in the middle of Times Square, soon to be in the middle of Virginia.

How does that hack the mind of the young viewer?

How does that hack the mind of the artist who's thinking about what they want to do in their work?q

Garth Brooks to receive Gershwin Prize for Popular Song

By KRISTIN M. HALL NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country music superstar Garth Brooks has more than just friends in low places.

The Library of Congress said Wednesday the Grammy winner will receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in March 2020.

Previous recipients include Tony Bennett, Paul Simon, Carole King and Willie Nelson.

Brooks is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

His hits include “Friends in Low Places,” “The Thunder Rolls” and “The Dance.”

At 57, he’ll be the youngest recipient of the Gershwin Prize. He will be honored with an all-star tribute concert in Washington, D.C., that will air on PBS stations in spring 2020.

“An award is only as good as the names on it,” Brooks said in a statement. “First

off, for any musician, the name Gershwin says it all.

Add to Ira’s and George’s names the names of the past recipients and you have an award of the highest honor. I am truly humbled.”

Since his debut in 1989, Brooks has become a topselling and touring musical force, bringing his brand of high energy and emotional country music to stadiums and arenas.

This Nov. 8, 2017 file photo shows Garth Brooks at the 51st annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn.

He is the best-selling solo artist in the United States with more than 148 million in album sales, according

to the Recording Industry Association of America, and is second only in total U.S. sales to The Beatles.q

A32 FEATURE

Thursday 3 October 2019

Vacant office parks find new life as schools, colleges

By MICHAEL MELIA FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) — On the new satellite campus of Sacred Heart University, the helicopter landing pad remains as one of the few reminders that the wooded, 69-acre property served until recently as the global headquarters for General Electric.

Where Jack Welch sat at the pinnacle of corporate America, professors now lead classes inside the sleek, 1970s buildings on the campus purchased by the university following GE's departure for Boston in 2016.

Across the country, office parks that have lost their luster with employers are being repurposed as school buildings. Colleges and school districts willing to think beyond traditional school settings are retrofitting office space to help them deal with growing enrollments and a scarcity of land in urban and suburban areas.

Sacred Heart computer science professor Bob McCloud said he likes the natural light the floor-toceiling windows bring into the classrooms. And the leftover cubicles outside his office leave plenty of room for his graduate students.

But he is still adjusting to the former GE site.

"It's a little corporate," he said.

A 28-bedroom guesthouse with a ballroom has been kept by the university to support a new hospitality program. Renovations are still underway at the two main buildings, but the uni-

This undated photo made available by Josh Meister shows the North Atlanta High School in Atlanta.

Associated Press

versity already has moved the education, computer science and engineering departments to what it is calling its West Campus, a short shuttle ride from the main campus.

Michael Kinney, a university administrator, said the $31.5 million paid for the property was a bargain when compared with the cost of new construction.

A similar idea has been under consideration a few miles down the Connecticut shoreline in Stamford, where the school district was looking at an unoccupied building that once housed Xerox as the potential site of an elementary school.

Some other examples: ATLANTA

This August 2018 photo provided by The Awty International School shows a playground at The Early Learning campus at The Awty International School in Houston.

Associated Press

When Atlanta Public Schools decided to build a high school inside a 11-story office tower that once housed IBM, designers found classrooms fit well within the column structure.

But there was plenty that needed changing.

A nine-story building on the 56-acre property was torn down to make room for a gymnasium and auditorium. Stairs were installed to create double-level common areas for each grade level and reduce logjams on the elevators. And laminated glass was installed in all the floor-to-ceiling windows to keep students from falling through if any were to crash into them while roughhousing.

IBM's kitchen and cafeteria were kept in place — with some modifications.

"You can't have chandeliers in a kids' cafeteria," said Bob Just, an architect with the firm Cooper Carry in Atlanta.

North Atlanta High School opened in the new space in 2013. IBM once employed over 5,000 people at the site but that had number had dwindled to less than a thousand as more were working at home or customer sites.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA With a fast-growing student population, and little avail-

able land, the city of Alexandria saw opportunity in a cheap, vacant office tower that had once housed the National Diabetes Association headquarters.

In September, the building reopened as the Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School, named for a civil rights advocate who worked for desegregation in Alexandria.

The school district bought a parking garage adjacent to the building for playground space, including a basketball court on the roof. A footbridge was built to allow children to walk from the third floor of the school to the building with play areas.

The bottom four floors make up the school, with the top two reserved for school office space. With large windows that let in abundant

natural light, school district spokeswoman Helen Lloyd said the building lent itself well to a school setting, and the retrofit took much less time than it would have to build a new school.

"We went to the planning council in September, and 11 months later the building opened, all glossy and gorgeous," she said.

HOUSTON As the Awty International School was looking for room to expand its early learning center, the Houston neighborhood was seeing business parks give way to more condos, apartments and retail development.

When an office park across the street became available for sale, the private school in the city center bought the five-acre property. It opened in September 2017 as a campus for preschool through first grade students. A playground replaced a parking lot in an interior courtyard, and the ceiling was raised in one building to accommodate a gym.

The 30-year-old development had been home to businesses including a bicycle maker and a tax office before being sold. The school renovated the entire property, adding color to the brick facade with new resin panels, and they were on track for significant savings compared to the costs of new construction before running into challenges with the remodeling.

"I'm not sure in the end we really realized those savings," said Don Davis, the school's director of facilities, "but it turned out to be a very nice project."q